Red-tailed Hawk

These guys just don't let me get very close. I use a smaller aperature

hoping to get sharpness from tail to eye, which does make the

background too busy for my taste. I tend to focus on the nape or

lower. Wonder if I can get away with f4 or less to still get focus from

head to tail? Yet still, here there just isn't the sharpness in the crown

and eye I would like to see. Any ideas on what is going on here?

Does it have to do with shooting up at an angle? Do I have to get

closer to the bird? Thanks.

Very nice shot Charles. Personally I like the blurred background as it is less distracting for the viewer since all attention is directed to the subject.

Please forgive me if I misunderstood you question....I may have. If I read you question correctly it appears that you may be confused about the F #'s. You have to remember that a SMALL F#, indicates a LARGE aperture, conversely a large f # indicates a small aperture. There is an inverse relationship between the F stop # and the actual size of the aperture just as there is an inverse relationship between how large your aperture is and how great your DOF is. That means that a large aperture (a small f #) will give you a very small DOF and your background will blur. Conversely, a small aperture (a large f #) will give you a Depth of Field from your subject out to infinity meaning that your subject and it's background will be sharp. In this beautiful shot that you posted of the hawk you could have everything (subject to background) sharp by choosing a small aperture (a large f # like 22.) Once again an inverse relationship enters into the equation because now, with that small aperture allowing a very small amount of light to enter the camera you will have to choose a slower shutter speed to allow more time for light to enter the small aperture hole and that slow speed may cause blur from camera shake and/or subject movement. Smaller apertures (large f #'s) demand slower shutter speeds and large apertures (small f #'s) require faster shutter speeds since there is a large hole letting in a lot of light. Charles, I hope this helps and, again, I apologize if I misunderstood your question. Happy shooting, Gary

I should have said F4 or larger, I get confused about that. The shot was F6.3, and the blurry background is starting to get busy for my taste. But to get the eye and crown of the bird sharp, would I have to go to F8? Or perhaps the issue I have with the eye and crown is caused by not really being in focus at all. Wonder if someone could sort that out for me. Thanks.

He does appear a bit out of focus all together. Not sure how far away you were, but that could be part of it. It appears you were a distance away. If you were closer, I believe the background would have been more out of focus. I would not hesitate to shoot this at f4, but I'm not a pro, so you may get arguements to the opposite end. Were you on auto focus or manual? Where was your center of focus? If you catch the eye in focus, everything else improves with it. If the eye is out of focus, the converse is true. Hope this helps a little.

Thanks Alan that helps a great deal. Good tip on the eye and to confirm focus with manual adjustment. Appreciate it.