tufted titmouse closeup

Hello, I've been lurking around here for a few months and would like to become more involved. Here's a shot I took a few days ago of a Tufted Titmouse waiting patiently for his turn at the feeder:

http://www.pbase.com/image/52713309/large.jpg

Nice feather detail, but way too tight on the framing ;)

What gear were you using to get that kind of detail?

Paul, thanks for the comments. This was about a 70% crop from 20D Canon raw. 100-400 ISL at 400mm. 1/250s at f/7.1. Flash was also used. I shot this one from about 6-7' distance.

I think this one might be a good one for a background manipulation, may give that a try this winter on some cold night...

Ah...... same way I shoot, but my camera is a 1D :)

It is imperitive to focus on the birds head when they are facing slightly way from the film plane especially. You might already know this,. but when you focus on it's head you will get TWICE as much sharp focus in the foreground as opposed the the background. That is the way camera lenses all work.

I love the feather detail in this shot.

Great Capture mdwsr :) Good detail.

I may misunderstand what you are saying Paul, but the zone of acceptable focus is 1/3 in front of the plane of focus and 2/3 behind it.

OMG..... I had it completely wrong .

But I think both of us were wrong in a way. Your general comment was apsolutely correct... for a 50mm lens at f11 . once you get up to 100mm and beyond it's basicly 50/50.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

I never tried to use the hyperfocal distance calculator with anything above 50mm until today.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mdwsr

Hello, I've been lurking around here for a few months and would like to become more involved. Here's a shot I took a few days ago of a Tufted Titmouse waiting patiently for his turn at the feeder:

http://www.pbase.com/image/52713309/large.jpg

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Nice detail. The feet look robotic, like some sort of sci-fi movie.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paulnj

But I think both of us were wrong in a way. Your general comment was apsolutely correct... for a 50mm lens at f11 . once you get up to 100mm and beyond it's basicly 50/50.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

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If that site is accurate (I'm not going to check since math is no longer a hobby of mine), that seems to be true for close focusing distances. Plug in a longer distance (200mm, f11, 100 ft.) and it's back close to 1/3 and 2/3. At 200 feet it's almost 1/4 - 3/4. That doesn't seem to jibe with the guide on the only telephoto lens that I have so I don't know whether the results on that site are accurate. Perhaps some of you folks can check the DOF guides on your lenses?
I've never checked any of this mathmatically, just used the 1/3-2/3 thumb rule and the guide on the lens. On the lens the guide is symetrical and the distance scale is non-linear and I assumed the ratio was consistant throughout.

MDWSR, I'm sorry this has become off topic.

Thanks everyone for all the comments. No prob on the topic change, discussion is good.