BT

One from today. Really hasn't compressed too well as this is sharp from beak to tail with quite stunning detail in the tail. Usually the tails are lost on my images due to DOF and poses etc, but I was amazed at the quality of the 1d2. Shame abou tthe BG and the lack of DOF on the perch. Would have needed f16 I reckon to get that sharp as well!

techs:
1d2, 500/4 + 1.4x, 1/500th, f11, ISO200, -0.67, tripod

And here's a 100% crop of the tail.

What a great shot Graeme, love the eye contact and like you say the detail is quite amazing and just shows how well the 500 takes that 1.4tc. You've mentioned the nits yourself but I'm confident that it'd be fairly simple to amend the BG in photoshop as you've a nice even colour to play with. You've also got a large dust spot above the bird's head near the top and a couple of small ones under the bird.

The full frame looks tremendously sharp on this HP panel Graeme - no worries

The crop just leaves me dumbstruck

The image looks a cracker to me Graeme, but I'm not too sure about the pale part of the BG on the right, especially the two 'harder' spots towards the top - couldn't you give them a pass with a blurr tool ?

That light bit is a flippin' gap in the hedge I reckon Bit annoying, but didn't really think I was going to get anything today and stayed stood in my puddle instead of moving across Yeah I can do something Andy, just had a play with the healing patch tool and that seems to hide a lot. Thanks for the comments

And yes Paul, doesn't surprise me. Thanks for pointing them out.I have possibly the dirtiest censor in the world and I've taken a load out already. Might just shoot wide open and save all this cloning business or clean my censor of course

Just had a very quick go before bedtime Graeme, hope you don't mind - say the word and I'll remove it. Just wanted to show that even with my limited abilities the BG shouldn't be a problem to clean up. I've not done around the head area but at least you can see what might be possible.

No worries, thanks Paul. What did you do?

I just copied and pasted this area over to the right and then used the clone tool on the left corner section with a large brush size and low hardness. If I were spending more time on it I'd probably mask out the bird and branch before cloning. Like I say I'm far from an expert and there maybe a better way but that's how I'd go about it.

Thanks Paul. I'll have a technical bash at it

Well done Graeme. I like this shot very much and I'm amazed about the sharp detail at 100%
A bit of a shame the other half of that perch is out of focus. It may distract a bit.
But a fine image indeed.

Edwin Kats

Nice picture of a beautifull little bird. If blue tit were rare people would fight to photograph them.....
Frederic

Hi Graeme,

Great Image! was this at Yarner wood?

Chris.

No Chris, this is at my feeder I've set up. Nearly went to Yarner yesterday funnily enough and was going to mail you, but the forecast wasn't great so didn't.

Hi Graeme,

Lovely detail.

Regards

Andy...

Very nice shot and a nice pose and perch. I do not mind the little bit of oof on perch.

Cracking shot Graeme, especially Paul's repost. You got the plane of focus spot on with this one.

Its just a fact of life (and quite frustrating) that web sized jpegs cann't show any fne detail, pics which have plenty of coarse detail can impart a greater feeling of overall sharpess.