[terrivid]

I am not sure how to correct these pictures. I shot them with my Sony a65. The Stellar Jay was shot at ISO100; f/6.3; 1/80. The background is so blurred that I did not manage to get a good shot of the bird. Most pictures I take are of wildlife using my Sigma 150/500 mm lens. Also, should I leave the AF illuminator off or on when taking close up pictures of birds/wildlife. Can you please help?

[MrB]

Apart from the composition (the bird rather high in the frame and its tail clipped off), I think the main problem here is the lighting - the top half of the dark bird is in dark shadow set against a dark background, and the natural light was beyond your control.

In post-processing you might try to bring the bird out of the darkness, by increasing the brightness of the background and decreasing its contrast, together with increasing the contrast of the bird and foreground, and some sharpening of the bird, e.g.

   

Regarding some other points:
The background will be blurred when using a long focal length lens at wide aperture - both parameters reduce the depth of field.
Consider using a higher ISO, e.g. 400 - your Sony should still produce clean images - but you can then use a faster shutter speed, which reduces the chances of motion blur softening the image.
The focus assist lamp is unnecessary in daylight outside, and it might spook a timid creature.

Cheers.
Philip

[EdMak]

A quick 5mts. in Photoshop. Away to watch the Football!! Ed.

[EdMak]

Football finished, another 5mts. Just a shot that did not make it fully, think the bird's head moved, to boot. As Philip says, higher ISO would have helped a bit. Chalk this one up to experience. Cheers. Ed.

[Sirlarek]

I am not sure how to correct these pictures. I shot them with my Sony a65. The Stellar Jay was shot at ISO100; f/6.3; 1/80. The background is so blurred that I did not manage to get a good shot of the bird. Most pictures I take are of wildlife using my Sigma 150/500 mm lens...

The rule of thumb for shutter speed is that it should be the inverse to the focal length. So if this was taken with a 500mm lens (at 500mm) then a 500th of a second would ensure you don't get any camera motion causing blur. if you have a shutter priority setting then that is how I would tackle that part of the problem. As for the light and dark part of the problem...you are stuck with finding that moment when you can best capture the shot in either full shadow or in full light. A spot meter setting will help your efforts.

[MrB]

I am not sure how to correct these pictures. I shot them with my Sony a65. The Stellar Jay was shot at ISO100; f/6.3; 1/80. The background is so blurred that I did not manage to get a good shot of the bird. Most pictures I take are of wildlife using my Sigma 150/500 mm lens...

The rule of thumb for shutter speed is that it should be the inverse to the focal length. So if this was taken with a 500mm lens (at 500mm) then a 500th of a second would ensure you don't get any camera motion causing blur. if you have a shutter priority setting then that is how I would tackle that part of the problem.

Sir, that is a commonly expressed reasonable guideline, but the lens has a widest aperture of f/6.3 at 500mm, so the ISO must be raised to enable a higher shutter speed. I suggested ISO 400, which would have allowed 1/320s in this case. That ISO value would keep the image noise down, while the lens stabilisation should easily cope with any camera/lens shake at that shutter speed.

Cheers.
Philip

[Sirlarek]

...I suggested ISO 400, which would have allowed 1/320s in this case. That ISO value would keep the image noise down, while the lens stabilisation should easily cope with any camera/lens shake at that shutter speed.

Cheers.
Philip

So true. I never think about the ability of lens stabilization as I don't have any that do that! Though I always try to use the lowest ISO I find my camera has remarkably low noise up to 1600. I can't comment about this camera sensor though.

Larry