He said what?

**tbond** · 09-07-2011, 06:27 PM

Taken in late afternoon sun of two small waxeyes arguing over access to the nearby fruit.
This is my first image submit for critique

**Bambi** · 09-07-2011, 07:56 PM

HI there Tbond. Welcome to the forum I like the moment you captured here- it's quite funny. Based on what I see it seems a bit soft. However if you uploaded it and it's too big there can be compression issues.

**theantiquetiger** · 09-07-2011, 08:09 PM

This is a GREAT shot!!! (much better than your fantail shot). The colors and expressions on the birds are captured nicely. As a novice, I would be very proud of this shot!!!!

As for the softness, I can't tell because I'm on an iPhone right now.

**Iguanasan** · 09-07-2011, 11:43 PM

This is a very engaging image. Nicely captured. There is some softness which is due to the board's compression I expect. When uploading images to the forum try to ensure they are less than 1025 pixels on the longest side and less than 275KB or the board's software will compress the image and cause some softness issues.

That being said, it looks like you missed the focus. The feather's look sharper (maybe that's just me) than the eye and whenever you are photographing something that has eyes you should always, as a rule, try to ensure the eyes are tack sharp. You captured a nice catchlight in the eye of the one on the left but it's a bit blurry.

**Marko** · 09-08-2011, 09:43 AM

Cool comp - but the focus was missed here OR the shot is greater than 275k.
Always focus on the eyes, and shutterspeed should be HIGH for birds. 1/500 would be my minimum for this shot.

**tbond** · 09-11-2011, 10:20 PM

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, now it is pointed out, I agree the shot is clear on feathers and soft, or slightly out on the eyes.
The camera settings were...
ISO: 500, Fstop: f/6.3, Exposure 1/2000 sec.
Thanks.
What would be better settings to get a bit more depth of field to help sort focus issues?

**JAS_Photo** · 09-12-2011, 12:04 AM

A very cute shot!

Oops! Sorry did not realize this was in critique.

**Iguanasan** · 09-12-2011, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by tbond

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, now it is pointed out, I agree the shot is clear on feathers and soft, or slightly out on the eyes.
The camera settings were...
ISO: 500, Fstop: f/6.3, Exposure 1/2000 sec.
Thanks.
What would be better settings to get a bit more depth of field to help sort focus issues?

Looks like you had lots of light here and Marko's suggestion of 1/500th or so says you could have increased to f8 maybe to get more DOF. How do you have your focus configured? Are you using spot focus or multi-point? I prefer spot focus. Then I can focus on the eyes and then recompose whenever I do animal or portrait shots.