LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Photography is like fishing: It's never a waste of my time.

These were all shot using my D300 & 70-300 Nikkor AF VR @ 1200-1600 ISO & mostly @ f/5.6 & at the 300 end of the zoom. Lighting was overcast & these were compromises to keep the shutter duration under 1/300 sec. They were all cropped with very light P&P.

Honestly, I was expecting more detail in the feathers. Am I expecting too much?
Thanks,

dooragdragon Loc: Alma , Arkansas

Are you trying to pull our leg here ?, that looks like a painted duck decoy to me .
Pete

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Nope. No decoys. Unless they swim now!

;)

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

I think they look pretty good given the poor lighting. Good light is needed to get good detail. It would be nice to get your ISO down to 400 or below also, but again that will take good light.

Joe F.N. Loc: Oshawa, Ontario

It all depends on how much these are cropped. That combination should give you superb detail but the more you crop the less detail you're going to see.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

That lens has been on my "maybe" list for a long time, but I've read a lot of reviews that say it starts getting soft beyond 200mm.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Couple of things Allen
Birding and wildlife as all about lighting, just as is Macro. You would never dream of using 4 digit ISO's for macro, so always keep that in mind. ISO800 use to be the max, then ISO400, now it's ISO320 or lower for all my birding shots, with the exception of getting that first good shot of that specific bird I've never captured before. Sort of like one for the record and not one to be printed. I also noticed when looking at your shoots that I don't see much noise, which might suggest the noise reduction software you are using is removing detail from your photos. They have sort of a creamy look, not a soft focus look. Not sure of the pixel size of your camera, but if your cropping more than half of the photo, then you need to get closer. Rising sun on your back/9:00 to 11:00 shining on the birds, low ISO, medium aperture, F/9 is my favorite when enough light, at least 1/500sec shutter speed and you will start seeing the detail your looking for. Oh, almost forgot, birding can be just as hard as macro if you want the Great Shots.. And don't forget to practice.
PS By the way, nice set of photos.. Your going to kill once you get the light and a little practice.

Joe F.N. Loc: Oshawa, Ontario

#2 tells a lot too. The detail in the dried Cattail is darn good but not so much in the Ruby-crowned Kinglet. That bird is lightning fast and a faster shutter speed would have helped a lot there.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Here's a shot with detail. F/8 ISO400 1/640-sec. Cropped and a little PP work, no sharpening applied.

ronwande Loc: Hendersonville NC

Lone Rangefinder, Did you do a lot of noise reduction in the first two shots? Too much of that makes faces look like plastic dolls. Perhaps it made the duck look like a wooden decoy?

I've seen this in my images when I apply too much noise reduction.

dooragdragon Loc: Alma , Arkansas

I notice pretty much the same effect on this post am posting link for you to look at .
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-173986-1.html

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Martin: thanks for looking/commenting. I trashed yesterday's shoot because I saw way too much movement. I had read about keeping the ISO @ 800 as a max. I found (yesterday) that I was shooting @ f/5.6 with a shutter duration as long as 1/30 sec. Obviously, that won't do-- so I went out today with a mind to up the ISO to stay at 1/500 or shorter. The lighting here has been horrible. Remember that I am quite a bit north of you + I've been having heavy overcast days. I've actually found that "sunny-16" doesn't work here.... It's closer to "sunny-8".... I'll keep practicing.... Unfortunately, the best variety of waterfowl happens during the Winter here, when the lighting is the worst. I did crop these-- and I did some noise reduction-- so that might explain the poor quality. As I said, I'll keep practicing. My D300 is 12.3 megapixels-- and I would love to go to the D7100....

Thanks again, Allen

busted_shutter

Thought same here...lol

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Here's the original SOOC of the first one-- that looked like a decoy

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

These are still really nice bird shots despite the problems you had to overcome. It is so hard to get close enough to moving birds for perfection and I can see you are a perfectionist. Happy New Year.