First Bird Pic

Would love to have some C&C on this being my first uploaded image. Had a real problem with camera settings and deleted a load of pics and was left with this one.

Great shot be careful this hobby could get expensive.

Liking the composition/exposure but the bird isn't sharp, what f stop were you using? May be a greater dof next time.

f14, 300mm focal lenth iso100 @ 1/160th
Would have preferred to be around f5.6 but just had one of those days when nothing seemed to work for me no matter what I changed. Most of the things I've done are indoor projects so going outside to try to capture something that moves just blew my mind a bit.

i like the composition, and definitely good timing with the shot.

it is soft though. might be a bit front focused or might be subject movement. Definitely crank up the ISO a bit. Even going to 200 and doubling the SS would help if it is movement.

That's a pretty nice "almost shot"! ; )

TTL wrote in post #17444135
f14, 300mm focal lenth iso100 @ 1/160th

It's not written in stone, but generally for a subject that's not moving, the hand-held shutter speed should not be slower than "1/lens focal length", so 1/300 sec might have resulted in a sharper image.

TTL, what camera body were you shooting with? While I appreciate that you were trying to get as clean as possible with the 100 ISO, current camera bodies really do have the ability to crank that ISO up to get the other factors where you want them. As PhotoGuy mentioned above, you almost always want to be at 1/1 of your focal length, so at least 1/300th here. You could have also gotten another stop of for the F stop by increasing your ISO to 400 or even 800 for most current bodies.
The composition is great, but as even you know, the fact that the subject is out of focus makes is really only an average shot.
But you will find you happy place for ISO and F stop as you get to shooting more outdoors.

Thanks for the comments all, really useful stuff and will be trying the suggestions out the next time I get a chance. I only started photgraphy just after christmas when I bought a Canon 1200D. I must admit, I am totally hooked

I like the composition and the colours. I think you caught the right moment. This, if you ask me, is the hardest thing to nail.

I do agree that the image is soft, but could it be that it's been cropped excessively? Just a thought of course. I'm not an expert on bird photography by no stretch of the imagination, but I find that the 1 thing that makes a big difference is being able to get really close to the subject, even if you have rather long focal lengths. In order to do this, you usually need a hide and lots and lots of patience.

I wish my first effort was half as good as that though

All mentioned before, definitely faster shutter speed along with being around 5.6 range should help in creating a nice sharp image. Your composition is excellent BTW, enjoy!

Warning, Bird photography can be addicting.

I think I will tweak this in LR to blur the branch a little more and try to add some clarity to make it a little sharper. Then print it of on A4 and submit for a club comp just to see how it does. I wouldn't want to show it as a projected image as blowing it up on screen may not do it any favours. Again, thanks for the comments