CC please Bitern on nest

What can I do to get a sharper pic. when I have to zoom in to get the shot. To clarify this is a great Blue Herron not a Bittern.

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Are you sure that this is a bittern? It looks a lot like a great blue heron.

macroimage wrote in post #11589965
Are you sure that this is a bittern? It looks a lot like a great blue heron.

That's what I thought too but a friend said no it's a Bittern. I should look it up. You were right, thanks for the correction.

Definitely not a Bittern.

Nice Blue Heron. I'm not sure I've ever seen one in a nest - nice capture.

If you want to know why it's not sharp, you should provide some exif info, including what zoom lens you used, etc.

Actually the EXIF is in the image. It was a Sony DSC-H50 at 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 100 with the lens at 78mm focal length. I don't know if digital zoom was used. If so, this will cost sharpness.

It looks reasonably sharp for a point and shoot camera. It might be that the focus was on the branches or nest instead of the bird.

Ideally the bird would be looking into the frame rather than out of it. You could also wait for better lighting (more from the side) to show more surface texture which gives the impression of sharpness. Also you can set the camera sharpness low to retain the real detail, then after resizing the image to the final dimension, apply sharpening in Photoshop. This should give a sharper looking picture.

macroimage wrote in post #11595645
Actually the EXIF is in the image. It was a Sony DSC-H50 at 1/640s, f/5.6, ISO 100 with the lens at 78mm focal length. I don't know if digital zoom was used. If so, this will cost sharpness.

It looks reasonably sharp for a point and shoot camera. It might be that the focus was on the branches or nest instead of the bird.

Ideally the bird would be looking into the frame rather than out of it. You could also wait for better lighting (more from the side) to show more surface texture which gives the impression of sharpness. Also you can set the camera sharpness low to retain the real detail, then after resizing the image to the final dimension, apply sharpening in Photoshop. This should give a
sharper looking picture.

Thanks for the great feedback. I am now using a Canon Rebel T1i but don't have many photos shot from that camera. So I'm resorting to posting older pics so I can get some cc on my photos that turned out well enough to post. I am learning so much from this forum. I at least have learned about the rule of thirds, more about how to focus on my subject and how to use software to improve my photos. Still lots to learn on aperture, shutter speed etc... What I enjoy shooting the most is landscapes and macro shots. My next purchase will be a macro lens.

Macro is a lot of fun. Enjoy.