"Back off Dude"

[Bill Holsten]

This was the Silver-throated Tanager (left) addressing the Common Bush-tanager (right). The reply was "Don't even think about it". The conversation was about pecking rights to the half papaya that was just off stage right. I cloned out some hardware, supporting the perch, from the lower right corner, added a bit of canvas on the lower edge and cleaned some papaya off the beaks of both birds. I was focused on the eye of the Silver-throated Tanager and , due to the shallow DOF, the Bush-tanager is a bit soft and required significant sharpening. Photographed last month in the Costa Rican cloud forest on workshop with Greg Basco and Doug Brown.

1D Mark IV, 500mm, 1/160", f/6.3, ISO 800, fill flash, tripod

Critique and comments welcome and encouraged.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Very nice capture Bill. Techs look good to me, and I didn't notice any softness in the bird on the right. Great light and nice OOF BG. I love the dynamics of the back-and-forth discussion of the birds. Well done.

[Doug Brown]

This was a tough interaction to capture Bill! These birds don't sit still for very long. I think you've got a bit of a greenish cast to the image, and perhaps there's a little too much flash relative to your ambient exposure. Nice job on sharpening the more OOF bird.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent intaraction captured, Bill. Nice perch poses and sharpness. I would try to bring out the natural light in the eye of the Silver Tanager. I'm sure it's there.

[gail bisson]

I like the interaction captured. Very nice to have 2 species in a frame.
The image appears to have a green cast and is very contrasty.
Gail

[Bill Holsten]

I pumped 35 points of magenta into green in PShop's Selective Color command. That should take care of the color cast. I also removed the catch light from the eye of each bird and brought up the lightness of the Silver-throat's eye. Good suggestions. Here is the repost.

[Doug Brown]

How about something like this? Just a quick edit.

[Satish Ranadive]

Wonderful interaction captured.Seeing for the first time, these birds.
Love the colors, details,perch,very nice BG and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great interaction and perch. Nice flash work yet I would work on the flash light in the eyes