Panned bird shot

[Willy wombat]

I know the primary is not super sharp but does the interesting panning effect i got in this image help or hinder?

Cheers
WW


[img]http://www.fototime.com/{4EEACDA0-F7D2-40DA-98AA-5F9DA04B2033}/picture.JPG[/img]

[ozczecho]

WW, definately helps. It seems the bird is *flying* and thats the effect you want...The trick is to get the subject a tad sharper. Still a good catch IMHO...

[Willy wombat]

Thanks for the encouragement Oz.

I like the 'flying' effect myself. I havent done much panning yet, something to work on. The focus is challenging - especially with my long lens.

[kipper]

If you could post technical details (eg. ss / fstop etc) that would help.

Personally I think the lighting is the wrong time of day and also the wrong angle. For flight shots with birds you need the first/last 2hours of light or have them flying over natural reflectors (eg. sand or water). The underside of the wing and body facing the viewer is in shadow, whereas the tail is blown. Looks like the sun is fairly high in the sky? There is also no eye contact per se because it's in shadow. For flight shots of birds (unless you have VR), I tend to use shutter speeds of 1/1000 and above, depending on the speed of the species.

[Willigan]

The effect is great - it definitely works. Nicely done!