Not relly sure what that is, but was assuming that the BG doesn't look good...Someone may correct me...I can take truthfulness and constructive criticism...Thanks!

juanital

Is it bad? I think that's a matter of opinion. If it looks bad to you, then yes it is bad. Did you want the BG to be more blurry?

What cathes my eye is not the bokeh, the picture seems underexposed. Was it taken through a window? That's what it looks like to me.

I looked at the exif - you were at 5x digital zoom, that might have somthing to do with it. Some other specs I saw, Shutter: 1/50, ISO: 50, F#:5. Set the ISO to 100 or 200, that would have increase the shutter a bit and brighten the colors a as well. It shows you were in 'aperture priority', could you have opened up your aperture more? The BG would have been more blurry, but sinc you were reaching into the digital zoom I think you may have been as wide as it would get.

Joe

Well, I guess I did wish the BG to more blurry and the cardinal to pop...I took thru a window opened but it was in the shadows shot at a slight angle...What I'm wondering is if I set the iso at 100 for all photos would that make it focus faster, too? and which way do numbers go to open the aperture? I get easily confused on the numbers for shutter and aperture, When i'm moving them I just watch for the 3rd one to turn red or white...It's like trying to understand algebra to me, and when I try to understand I get very confused...

Okay to see if I 'get it'...
Open Aperture more for a more blurry BG...which way would the numbers go?
Increase shutter to brighten colors with ISO settings at 100-200...Which way would those go?

Thanks a million, I really appreciate your feedback and help!...

juanital

The lower the f# the more open the aperture blades are, this creates a narrow depth of focus.

The shutter speed increase wouldnÂt necessarily brighten your color, I was suggesting to help get rid of any motion blur that might have existed. 1/50 is a slow speed to shoot at when your lens is all the way reached out, and into your digital zoom. Increasing the ISO would have helped increase the shutter speed. Plus, it makes the sensor more sensitive to the light so your colors would have appeared brighter.

I need some water..

Hi Juanita!! I agree with Joe... bumping your ISO will help tremendously... there is a lot of noise in this picture because of the underexposure. I usually never shoot birds at less than 400 ISO and an aperture of 5.6 on my Canon. My Sony is a lot more tricky. Usually no less than 200 ISO (using higher ISO just introduces more noise in the Sony) and have bumped my shutter speed as high as 1/1000 to "freeze" hummingbirds. That said... if you don't mind, I could do some post processing on this to make it acceptable if you'd like. Peggy

Agree
I can tell on your settings that you had low light.
When I see low light [no sun] I usually start out at about 200 ISO
Shooting birds, I try to shoot at about 1/250 to 1/500 / shutter speed.
If the bird sits absolutely still, you can go down on speed and ISO to give you a better picture.
To freeze the flying bird, go higher like 1/1000 or more sh. speed.
Sure, low ISO, normally gives you better a picture, color, but you need allot of light.
High ISO, like over 500, you get into allot of noise, grainy!
Konrad

This is just FYI, I dont like to shoot above ISO200 on my P&S cameras. They do not handle noise that well.

In this picture, ISO 100, perhaps 200 would have been better when shooing inside of the tree, but I sure like to keep IS0
low as possible for getting optimum colors.

Tv( Shutter Speed )
1/400
Av( Aperture Value )
5.6
ISO Speed
100

Wow, you guys are awesome! Thanks for the valuable information!

Peggy...Yes, please do....and thank you!

Juanita

Juanita, here you go!

{{!gwi}}

Oops, shouldn't have push that post button so quickly! I spent about 2 minutes on this. Using photoshop, I ran a noise action on it, corrected the levels and upped the saturation a tiny bit. Hard to work on a small picture like this as there as jaggies in both pictures from compression.

{{!gwi}}

I love the pic's all the same. The Red one adds some variety to a group placement. But, if you don't like it. Than, hope for another chance to get a better photo. They say, it's not what I think, but , what you think.

Good luck. Enjoyed tham all.

Starduster