Green Bee-eater

[Prashant Jois]

Ragi Halli - somewhere behind Bennerghatta National Park
9-10-2011 @ 9:34 am
Aperture priority
Tv 1/250
Av 9
Evaluative metering
EC -1/3
ISO 200
Fl 310mm

Cropped close to 50%. Please pass on your C&C.

[Bhargava Srivari]

Nice looking bird. The colors look pleasing. Why only 310mm? Also, a slightly wider aperture may have sufficed here.

Tfs

[Prashant Jois]

Don't know Bhargava. Whenever a bird is close by and I zoom in completely, the tails cuts off due to the fact that you are focusing on the eye and in order to fit in the bird in the frame most ppl do shift the focus down (lets say belly or centre of the bird) and would try to fit the bird between top and bottom of the view finder. Whenever I have tried doing this, invariably I have lost critical focus from the eye of face (may be there is something wrong with my handling). In order to avoid that loss of critical focus on the from the eye/face, I tend to restrict the zoom.

May be you can help me out here?

[Bhargava Srivari]

Prashant,

At such times, the focus and recompose technique can help. You could focus at the eye region at the longest end and without releasing the half press on the shutter button (if that's how u focus--some use the AF-on button to focus) to ensure that the focus doesn't shift, you can recompose the scene in the way u want and then fully press the shutter button to make pictures after you see the composition that you like in the viewfinder :) Please note that this is possible only when using one shot AF and not in AI focus mode. Also, after recomposing and shooting the AF point may appear to be locked at a place other than the eye when u see the image ( with display AF point option enabled) but in reality it will have locked near the eye if you focussed near the eye initially.

Wish to see others on the forum throw more light on this and correct me if wrong.

Cheers

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice image. The clean background looks good. A slight head turn in your direction would have enhanced the eye contact further.
What I do normally, is compose the frame and then move the AF point accordingly on the eye and half press the shutter button to get the focus. As per the shutter speed, I adjust the aperture to get the adequate DOF. So the AF point is always on the eye and the remaining body is covered with the DOF (as per the aperture, depending on the shutter speed). If you have the lens steady then the AF point won't shift and I have got sharp images even at 1/30 shutter speed. If the subject is steady, then you can always check in the view finder and make the necessary changes of AF point or compositions by trying zooming in our out or trying wider or narrower apertures.
If the subject is far then focusing on the eye can be difficult or if there is grass, then the AF point can lock on to something. Then manual focusing can be done. I hope this helps. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I agree with Mrudul. If you are cropping a lot, then it doesn't matter where you focus. Most likely you are not going to get the critical focus on the eye, the reason being the AF point will be large enough to cover the head and shoulder and so where the auto focus will lock on is anybody's guess.

Every technique has got a limitation. You need to choose based on your particular situation. Which AF point do you normally use?

[Prashant Jois]

Sabyasachiji,

Most of the times, I end up using center AF point.