Snow bunting 2

After the comments on sharpness on my last posting I took a very close look at the last photo I posted, and I have to admit the sharpness last time round (especially on the head) was not what it should have been. So here is another one from the same series, with a sharper head but (to me) slightly less appealing pose.

Thanks for looking,

David

Nikon D300, 600mm Nikon, 1.4x Nikon converter, 200 ISO, 1/100th @ f9.

Very nice indeed David. The colouration on the bird really echoes the pebbles.

The head still seems a little soft on the larger image, it looks as thought the point of focus may have been on the shoulder? Also the bird is angled away from the camera but with a head turn. 600mm + 1.4 tc has a shallow DOF at f9 I would imagine. I have never shot with a such a super telephoto but I would imagine focus will be super critical. Still a cracking shot though!
Nick.

I have to agree, the shoulder looks sharper but the rest is very nice.

Hi Dave - looking at the larger image and taking into account the birds directional attitude to the camera, there's sharpness in the pebbles just that little bit further away than the facing side of the bunting - perhaps with the 1.4x + 600 combo and the AF pattern you had selected at the time you've got a wee bit of back focus effect going on.

I'm not saying the combo IS back focussing, it just looks that way in the shot!

maybe a tad lacking in sharpness on the eye but we probably worry far too much about that sort of thing. I doubt anyone other than us photographers would notice that (including many magazine editors). An attractive image, I like the colours of the pebbles.

Matt

I echo Matt's comments!