I shot these in P mode. They got captured at f/4. The result was really good background blur but somewhat out of focus. I'm sure the OOF was due to hand shake (to do: buy gloves). In hindsight I'm thinking I should have switched to Av mode and dropped to 2.8 to bump my shutter speed.
In the last two shots with the feeder your AF focused on the feeder much more than the birds. I would switch to manual focus or use focus lock on the bird then recompose. They are a tad dark, but F/2.8 wouldn't help the focus. For whatever reason your AF, even in the first two shots chose to focus on something other than the bird. That is what I see as the main issue, not the F-stop. When you are shooting in somewhat low light or where there are highly contrasting objects in the shot, the AF can become quite confused. In all of your shots the AF chose to focus on something that wasn't your subject. I find myself choosing manual focus more and more unless I am shooting fast moving objects, birds in flight, dogs running, etc...
That's the problem. I wasn't paying attention to my AF points. I was trying to catch these little suckers bouncing about. Live and learn. Thanks for the advice.
Comments
I shot these in P mode. They got captured at f/4. The result was really good background blur but somewhat out of focus. I'm sure the OOF was due to hand shake (to do: buy gloves). In hindsight I'm thinking I should have switched to Av mode and dropped to 2.8 to bump my shutter speed.
Does that make sense?
Canon Rebel XTi | Canon EF 24-70 2.8L
http://esquared.smugmug.com
Did that make sense?
www.capture-the-pixel.com
Canon Rebel XTi | Canon EF 24-70 2.8L
http://esquared.smugmug.com