Birds

I'm posting my pictures here for the first time - so don't beat me too hard, please

Several wild beasts I've managed to caught with K100D and A 400mm F/5.6:

Those are very nice indeed and I do like the strong lighting in the shots and they're well captured.

It's always difficult with the little guys and all the branches in the background to get it to blend more. I can't see the EXIF data, but it might be worth using a smaller f stop if possible to help blur it out more (reducing the DOF), though you may lose sharpness in doing that, depending on the lens.

One other small point, the pictures seem to have a touch too much PP sharpness for my personal taste.

Chirpy,

Less DOF is acheived with a LARGER f stop (smaller number)?

Not being especially picky, but there are often new folk here who may be confused.



Cheers

Oops

Ok, ok, I know what you meant, Chirpy

I don't have the originals with me now, to check the EXIFs, but I was shooting at F/6.7-8 for the most the time that day. So not much room for wider settings - would F/5.6 make a lot of a difference here? I'll chceck next time

Concerning the sharpness - I had a sharpness set at +2 in the camera, no post-processing on the PC.

I'll leave the final DOF answer to Chirpy, but in my experience, even one stop larger will make a significant difference at 400mm. The longer the lens, the bigger the difference.

Your shots are perfect examples of a point we're discussing in another thread, about the need (or not) for more megapixels.

Severe cropping would make great portrait shots of these cute little guys, and this is where a high mp camera pays off.

Cheers!

I would set that to 0 or -1 if I were you - you can always sharpen later, whereas you can't so easily undo the effects of over sharpening.