Cedar Waxwing

I must say that i am impress with the sharpness and the gradual colours on the bird. interesting~ but the background seems abit clear and distracting. perhaps a shallower depth of field will be better?

I am curious about the f/8 as well, Greg. You seem to use this aperture a lot (almost always). Any particular reason? Vivek.

Hi Vivek (and Tan),

 

The reason I used f/8 for this shot was to avoid shooting totally wide open... for a sharper result. As for the background, there would be little difference if I had left it at f/5.6 and it would still be 'busy'. I have some shots of the waxwings more out in the open with a clear background, but this was the sharpest and the best pose.

 

Lately I've been trying to create a greater diversity of what I would call habitat shots... keeping the subject more integrated in their environment. I really like the beautiful bokeh shallow DOF photos and am always trying to capture them. At the same time I like to have some images where the subject isn't quite so isolated.

 

I do stop down further when I try taking shots of multiple birds or birds on the ground, etc. I almsot never use fill flash anymore, so I tend to keep the aperture open enough for DOF and quick shutter, yet still get enough sharpness with the prime + TC. Most often this equals f/8

 

Thanks for visiting and asking. I like conversations like this... a bit deeper into technique and approach. :) Cheers, -Greg-

"..what I would call habitat shots..."

 

Excellent idea and thanks for the explanation! More power to you, Greg!

Greg, I think the alternative way to fix the busy background is to desaturate the bkg color. Just a minor suggestion that you might consider to give it a try.