From the garden

[paulm]

I've been wanting to get a couple of pics of some of the birds in the garden for a while now but they are never around when i am. Anyway i managed to get a few pics earlier but this was the only 1 that came out ok. Any tips on what to do with it now or how it could have been taken better? i know it was on a roof so im not on about a change in location just what settings i could have changed etc. Cheers

[JPS]

Hi Paul,
These little fellows can be a challenge at the best of times. I must say I think the focus point has locked onto the drain-pipe rather that the bird itself.
There a few thing that might be of help to you, I notice you used Aperture Priority, F5.6, Focal length of 300mm and Exposure of 1/200.
With a 300mm Focal length I think I would have tried using manual mode, so that I could have set the shutter speed to 1/480 (1/500). Because you use a Canon camera which I believe has a 1.6 cropped sensor, to help stop camera shake and keep things sharp I think a faster shutter speed would have helped. The reason behind the shutter speed figure 300mm X 1.6 = 480. So I would have set my camera to 1/500 (rounded the number to suit the camera options).
I think the most important thing is to get the bird sharp and in focus. Also the use of a tripod might have helped.
You got a good DoF the background is nicely blurred.
Once the bird is nice and sharp, I think a tighter crop would look better and also make the bird larger and more prominent in the picture.
Hope this helps.
Regards
John

[paulm]

Thanks for that John. I got the tripod out but typically the bird flew off. I will try the 1/500 shutter speed next time and see how it goes. I'll post the new pics up when I get the chance to take some