[greenster93]

I photographed this at a tapas bar in La Coruna in Spain, she the sparrow skirting along under the tables looking for tit bits.
I was using a cannon EOS 650D with a 17  to 250mm zoom lens.

[EdMak]

My monitor shows it a bit dark, so here it is lightened, and, sharpened a bit, it is out of focus, they move quick. Cheers.  Ed.

[EdMak]

unable to upload pic, trying again on a new reply.  Ed.

[greenster93]

unable to upload pic, trying again on a new reply.  Ed.

Many thanks for doing the edit your version looks a lot better. The image of the bird looks a lot clearer. Did you sharpen it and brighten up the exposure a bit.

[EdMak]

I use Photoshop CS4E. 
  Mainly Shadow/Highlight adjustments, then Brightness/Contrast. Selected the bird only, sharpened, then head only, sharpened a bit more, highlighted the eye.  What I did not do, now rectified, was to remove the white lines.  Cheers.  Ed.

[greenster93]

I use Photoshop CS4E. 
  Mainly Shadow/Highlight adjustments, then Brightness/Contrast. Selected the bird only, sharpened, then head only, sharpened a bit more, highlighted the eye.  What I did not do, now rectified, was to remove the white lines.  Cheers.  Ed.

Thank you for the info I can also see the areas in the back ground on the footpath surface that i cloned and i feel that i should have used a softer brush as you can see the straight edges in the back ground.

[Fogey]

The basic problem here is that the subject is out of focus and no amount of sharpening is going to correct that.

There could be a number of reasons for this.  Each lens has a 'sweet spot' regarding the size of aperture, normally f/8 - f/9.  Did you have the aperture as wide as it would go?  If so, this is the sort of result you can expect.

Was your shutter speed fast enough?  There is a rule that the shutter speed should match your focal length, so if you were shooting at 250 mm focal length, then the shutter speed should be at least 1/250th sec, to avoid blurring through camera movement when the shutter is open.

I assume you had the lens at full zoom?  If so, then the subject could well be inside your minimal focal distance, hence the blurring.  Zooming out slightly would bring the subject into your focal range.

It would help if there was some exif data.

[MrB]

Very good relevant points from Jeff.  Just a few additional considerations - the shutter speed 'rule of thumb' should also include the crop factor, which I think is 1.6 for a Canon 650.  At 250mm that would suggest a shutter speed of at least 1/400s;  and perhaps many of us might need to add a bit more for our age!   However, we can often get away with using somewhat slower shutter speeds if our gear includes image stabilisation technology.

Cheers.
Philip

[Fogey]

Very good relevant points from Jeff.  Just a few additional considerations - the shutter speed 'rule of thumb' should also include the crop factor, which I think is 1.6 for a Canon 650.  At 250mm that would suggest a shutter speed of at least 1/400s;  and perhaps many of us might need to add a bit more for our age!   However, we can often get away with using somewhat slower shutter speeds if our gear includes image stabilisation technology.

Cheers.
Philip

Thanks for the additional info, Philip - I should have included that in my answer.  

[maisie]

I'm wondering, did you use the zoom for this photo?

[greenster93]

I'm wondering, did you use the zoom for this photo?

Tamron Zoom lens 18 to 270mm.
The settings were aperture f6.3 focal length 270mm shutter speed 1/100 iso 100

[Fogey]

I would suggest from your settings, the subject was just inside your minimum focal distance. Either step back a tad or reduce your focal length to get the subject pin sharp.