Black Tern in flight

Gave my MarkIII some workout on a couple of juvenile Black Terns yesterday. Black Terns are pretty uncommon here, and it was my first try with flight-shots of them. Flight-pattern was very erratic, and I couldn't keep the central sensor on them. This was shot in "ring-of-fire" mode.

As I'm still on an uncalibrated screen, please let me know if it looks strange in the colors.

1D MarkIII + 500/4; iso400, f7.1, 1/5000; handheld, cropped to vertical.

Helge, nice image of a bird, as you say, with an erratic flight pattern. I do think it is a bit soft or maybe it just needs a bit of USM.
Rene de Heer

Great capture Helge
I think the focusing may be on the far wing but some selective sharpening should bring out the rest

Hi Helge

Great image.

I agree about the focal point but this is the problem with using the 'ring of fire' on an object that is not totally parellel to the field of view

I would be pleased with it in any event!

Barrie

Thanks for the comments guys, I completely agree that the focal point seems to be on the far wing, and as this is not heavy cropped, DOF is too limited to extend sharpness all over the bird.

Barrie, I think you are right about the "ring-of-fire", it seemed like I couldn't get focus with the middle of the frame, but only when the bird hit the outer edge of the "ring-of fire"

Anybody now what size DOF would be here given a distance of say 12 metres ?

Cheers, Helge

Fine shot Helge, and colours look fine on my screen!

I agree with Dave, that a touch of selective sharpening will even things out a bit more. No sign of any halo's around the head/beak, so i'm sure you have some possible added sharpening to play with.

Alan

Hi Helge

Minor nits covered - a fine flight shot!

David

Very nice flight shot, with lovely detail in the blacks.

Seen on the Norfolk coast at this time of year but only if you're really lucky. So far they have evaded me. Like the tonality and composition.

Lovely capture indeed, also like the hint of blue sky creeping in on the right, otherwise it'll be too 'monotonic' (if there's such a word)...

Des

I like it's position in the frame Helge, and the head turn is nice addition. It's eye looks a bit soft to me too, but as far as colour, it looks decent to me.

Cheers,
Marko

Lovely in flight shot, looks just fine on my screen.

Looks good, any minor nits have already been covered...

Hi Helge

Good technique to get anything in focus at all, especially handheld, I really struggle to track small birds in flight handheld, I prefer if possible to use a gimball support, but this has it's downsides too.

Nice one anyway

cheers

Sean