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From my last post of this I think it is a Wheatear.
This is not as clear as I would have liked, although I was lying down on the cliff edge in a strong wind 
I do struggle a little with photographing birds I seem to get interesting poses but never as clear as I would like.
Taken just past the Lighthouse on the Lizard in Cornwall.
Settings:
1/350 sec
ISO 200
F5.7
400mm - Hand Held with IS switched on
| Camera: | Canon EOS 50D |
| Lens: | Sigma 120-400mm OS HSM |
| Recording media: | RAW (digital) |
| Title: | Ruffled Feathers |
| Username: | 
Blundez |
| Uploaded: | 10 Dec 2010 - 12:44 PM |
| Tags: | Birds, Wheatear, Wildlife / nature |
| VS Mode Rating |
101 (100% won) These stats show the percentage of wins and the rating score that your photo has achieved. You can go to the VS Mode by clicking on this icon. Signup to e2Signup to e2 to see which photo this has won or lost against in the vs mode |
| Votes: | Voting Disabled |
 | Critique Wanted |
| Modifications Welcome (Upload a Modification) |
Comments
This is a good effort given the conditions but it may have paid to up the ISO to get a faster shutter speed.
Compositionally there is a fair bit of wasted space either side of the bird so I have cropped it in portrait format at 10 x 8. The harsh light from the side has possibly left the shot a little under exposed so I have made a levels adjustment whilst protecting the highlights with a layer mask. Finally I sharpened as the image is fairly soft.
The pose, eye contact, movement in the feathers and blurred background are all terrific.
Phil
Appreciate the comments Phil,
I will have to use ISO more than I do I am always a bit nervous in case of grain but forget that the 50D can cope well with higher ISO settings.
Your Mod works well the cropping does focus the eye more and I hadn't realised that I could get it any sharper so you have given me food for thought - thanks.
With image stabilization, 1/320s at an effective focal length of 560mm is probably OK in good conditions but maybe not enough in a strong breeze. ISO-400 should give decent noise performance and 1/640s should give better sharpness. If you find you need to do noise reduction, use layers so you can apply it only to the background — noise reduction eats detail, too. (If you're not familiar with layers, duplicate the image as a second layer, apply noise reduction to that layer and then erase the bird from it so it shows through from the original layer.)
The lighting is quite difficult here, with strong light on his back and most of the front in shadow. Ideally, more of the bird would be lit but, hey, you can only shoot him where he decides to stand.
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