Hi Again Adam,

While editing almost 7,000 images from the same day, I realized that shooting smaller in the frame with the bird farther from you will yield the whole bird sharp. Every time.

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Thanks for commenting, Adam. Glad that you liked the tips. For whatever reasons, the JPEGs look like crap until you click on them to enlarge.

As for the d-o-f, would you be willing to got to ISO 800 to get the d-o-f needed (f/11) to cover the far foot? I would not and as I say here often, my aim is to get the bird’s eye sharp. In most cases including this one, folks suggesting “more d-o-f” are simply not dealing in real world situations. In addition, stopping down to f/11 would sharpen the backgrounds to a distracting level 🙂

For me, the head angle in Image #1 is pretty much perfect.

In addition, the strip of green seaweed in Image #1 is a huge plus. I would never even think about removing it. If I were an artist, I would have painted it in in the perfect spot just as it is in the photo 🙂

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