![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/western-bluebird-4588b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"western-bluebird-4588b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThis is one of those shots where I’m glad the entire bird isn’t sharp.<\/p>\n
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1\/8000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, canvas added for composition, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I photographed him in the Wasatch Mountains nine months ago soon after he took off. I’ve never posted the shot before because doing so meant I’d have to add canvas on the left for composition and I don’t like to do that. But last night I stumbled across the image again and decided to play with it to see what the processed photo would look like and in the end I chose to use it to make a point about sharpness.<\/p>\n Typically in my photos I prefer the entire bird to be sharp, including the wings when it’s in flight. But in this shot his head is in front of part of his right wing and both are the same color of blue which has the potential to keep his head from standing out very well. Blue On Blue<\/a> might have worked well for Bobby Vinton but it can be a problem in bird photography. However in this case the bird’s body, including his head, is very sharp but the wings are soft and that disparity in sharpness helps his head to stand out against the similar blue behind it.<\/p>\n All this begs the question, why<\/em> does that disparity in sharpness exist? In bird photography softness is usually caused by one or more of the following: a poor quality lens, imprecise focusing, insufficient shutter speed for the situation (motion blur) or insufficient depth of field (DOF). In this shot I’m using a high quality lens, my focusing was precise as evidenced by the sharpness of the bird’s head and body and I had oodles of shutter speed, much more than I actually needed, to prevent motion blur.<\/p>\n In this case the culprit (or hero, depending on how you look at it) is a shallow DOF. At f\/6.3 I was close enough to the bird that my limits of “acceptable sharpness” didn’t extend as far as either wingtip and that was a good thing.<\/p>\n Yes, the “blue on blue” in this photo might still be a bit of a problem but it isn’t nearly as severe as it would have been if the right wing had been sharp.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n