blue bird repost original!

I am asking for suggestions for getting sharper photos. The enclosed photo was taken with a Canon T1i, with a Sigma 150-500mm lens on a tripod. ISO 800, 1/400 F-11. lens @ 500mm. I was about 40-50 feet from the bluebirds, and may have used a cable release. Manual focusing may have been used, I had just removed a 1.4 xtender and don't recall if I had switched back to auto focus or was still on manual. My tripod head is rated for 11 pounds, but seems abit small as the lens tends to drift downwards. I have ordered a larger one which can support up to 44 pounds.Any comments will be appreciated. This is a major crop, am I exceeding the capabilities of my equipment? Thanks for your help.

It would help to see the actual photo. It does look like it's a bit too much of a crop. It also appears to be a little OOF.Too bad, it would have been great shot.

I agree with the others. Can you post the original unedited, uncropped photo? Than we can see what you are working with to begin with.

Also, as for your not remembering if you had the TC on and if you used a cable, etc. that information should all be in the EXIF data.

- Luke

Thanks for your comments, this is the original jpeg image.

Hi John,

It looks as if the focus may not have been spot on for the original but in any case you would be expecting too much to try to crop to that extent and get a sharp photo. You need the end product to fill most of the frame to begin with if you are going to get the kind of results you really want.

Peter

Well the shutter speed of 1/400s with a 500mm focal length might make it hard to get a sharp photo too. The birds are not still even if the camera is fixed. You could try opening up the lens a bit, f11 seems too closed to me. I'd be at f4 with a much faster shutter speed.

One thing you could try is putting something with very fine detail (money works well, as do stuffed animals) in a similar situation to what you have above. Then you've got a controlled scenario, and can try shots with and without the TC, manual and auto focus, and various ISOs and shutter speeds. That will let you know the maximum amount of detail you could ever expect from your setup - and might point out any issues, including poo autofocus, a bad lens or TC, or some source of camera shake. (The tripod could certainly matter as well.)

The cropped image is about 6.8% of the full frame. If you wanted the composition shown in the cropped version you needed to be a lot closer or have a much longer lens. Cropping is not a substitute to getting close to your subject, either physically or with a long optic.

I agree with David - you need to "baseline" your camera, lens, converter, and tripod with some controlled situations and subjects to determine how much quality you can produce under ideal conditions. Once you've done that only then can you analyze a real world shot such as this and start to understand what went wrong.

I agree that the focus seems a little off. Looking at the full frame version you need to see what part of the sawed wood is sharpest to get an idea of where the plane of focus was in this image.

A shutter speed of 1/400th second should be fast enough for a 500mm lens if you've got the focus right, if the tripod/head is adequate, and if your long lens technique is good. That includes not cranking up a slim center column. And for me it includes hanging on to the camera/lens while I release the shutter to help damper the system, rather than allowing the rig to balance on its own when using a cable release.

Just owning a long lens does not guarantee good bird photos. You need to get a lot closer, even with a long lens

Thanks everyone for you comments. I appreciate your feedback. Hopefully I will have some sharp blue birds shots before they migrate! Sure is a lot different than photographing birds in a zoo exhibit.

You can't really judge your equipment's performance from this big of a crop, there's simply not many pixels to work with. Use a blind or camoflauge and staying low to get closer.