The grub get's it (Parus major)

Tit eating a grub. Shot to demonstrate the possibilities of a non-VR 300mm lens handheld. I am about 3,5 metres away from the tit. Compared to the magpie underneath – albeit a larger crop – the size of the subject really matters. I was further away (about 5,5 metres) from the magpie with the same focal length, yet you keep more details on a larger subject – the magpie – than a smaller subject, the great tit.

Bird photography can be insanely difficult and/or costly (400mm, 500mm and 600mm lenses go up in price exponentially…)

Edited:

- 75% crop from the frame (3:2)

- No lenshood (Cloudy overcast sky)

- Whitebalance Auto

- Handheld

- ISO800, 1/160 (officially too slow, shutterspeed should be inverse / divided by the length of your lens i.e 1/300)

- Add contrast, blacks, recovery of whites

- Duplicate layer

- Freaking Amazing Detail (2,5) plug-in

- Masked layer, apply FAD only on bird

- Topaz DeNoise, RAW Light

- Saturate yellow with saturate tool

- Save as JPEG, Quality 12

Done