Thread: The Eastern Spinebill

A nice set of images Trev.
If I could offer some advice it would be in relation to the depth of field or more correctly the lack of sufficient DOF.
If you look at the image top right, the DOF is too shallow and the tail feathers are lacking sharpness. In the images 6 & 7, while the bird is OK, the branch is not so. Have you applied selective sharpening?

Closing the aperture by 1, preferably 2 stops would resolve the problems. With the bird 'posing' for you it should be possible to use an aperture of f8 or even f11.

If you are applying selective sharpening (a technique which I use quite often), you could improve the effect by making sure that the branch where the bird is sitting has the same sharpening and apparent DOF. If you close your aperture to increase the overall DOF, you may find that you want to do as I do and use selectively cut back the sharpeness of the background. I find it relatively easy to cut back the sharpeness using layers,layer masks and opacity adjustment; but it is almost impossible to overcome the effect of DOF without running the risk of over-sharpening.

Keep up the good work, I am enjoying seeing your images.


Bob
(9 years teaching bird photography and photoshop with Bird Observation and Conservation Australia)

Well done Trev, Those little blokes are extremely fast around here; how you got this to stay still enough for these top photos is first class....Peter

Thanks for that Bob.
You obviously have a ton of knowledge in the field.
I have a tendency to employ a shallow depth of field, it's an artistic preference.
I think images look more natural that way.

As for the layers and such I'm well out of your league there.
It's all a bit beyond me.

Originally Posted by crowie

Well done Trev, Those little blokes are extremely fast around here; how you got this to stay still enough for these top photos is first class....Peter

I don't know what's going no Peter.
There's is one little fellow (I call him Herbert) he just fly's in and sits on a branch right near the front deck of the shack.
No joke so far I've taken over 250 shots of the little bloke.
His brilliant!

Here's a couple of his more different posses.

sb9.jpg sb10.jpg

Doesn't mind a close-up either.

sb11.jpg sb12.jpg

And this would be the good lady wife!.

sb14.jpg

Don't tell the poor thing but she looks a little under dressed.

Cheers
Trev.