Scarlet Honeyeater #2

[Glenn Pure]

171951
Another Scarlet Honeyeater shot from my visit to the Australian National Botanic Gardens at the weekend. The bird spent a few minutes on this branch preening (hence fluffed-up appearance), allowing some chance to photograph it while it wasn't flitting around madly. There were at least 2 males and this may not be the same bird as my first post. Crop retains just under a third of the frame area.

Thank you for taking a look and for any comments you may have.

Capture details: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/400 sec, f7.1, ISO 1600. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Very light NR applied to bird and stronger NR to background. Main subjects only sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian blur) after final size reduction.

[Michael Thompson]

very nice closeup and cool colors! the reds look blown out on the top of the head on my computer with loss of detail, I still like it though

[William Dickson]

I like this one better Glenn. The colours and detail on the bird are amazing. I love the pose and HA. Well done on capturing it in a 'natural' looking surrounding. I can imagine it wasn't easy, and your patience paid off. Good work mate.

Will

[Tim Foltz]

Glenn, very nice, super details, I don't mind the OOF foreground leaves. if you can you might add some cyan to the red channel, it's a trick Artie showed me it really helps with super reds like this.

-Tim

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you Michael, Will and Tim. I did look carefully for blown reds here but think it's fine. The 'blown' bits on the top of the head is, I think, actually yellow pollen hence the appearance of looking blown although there are a few highlights there that probably can't be saved but they are quite small. I will have a bit more of a play with it all the same.

[Glenn Pure]

I've just had a further go at this shot - reduced the red saturation on the head and played with the background a little more. Interestingly, the red channel looked fine until the final step where I convert to sRGB colour space. As soon as I do that, the red channel goes from good to looking blown on parts of the head. I haven't fixed that here but may need to rethink my workflow and convert to sRGB earlier.

********Had to delete the first version of this I posted as the image did not appear properly - only realised some hours later after I looked. Not sure what gremlin caused this.

171983

[gail bisson]

I like this image a lot more than the previous one! I think you achieved a nice compromise of including the environment but also not overwhelming the bird.
I see your OP and repost (not sure why you can't).
Gail

[Glenn Pure]

I see your OP and repost (not sure why you can't).
Gail

I can, of course, Gail. I had not done so because I do need to rethink my workflow and when I convert to sRGB. At the moment, I do this at the end so I can preserve the full gamut for other uses. But it seems I'll have to convert a lot earlier if I'm to get an accurate idea of how sRGB will render this and make my lighting adjustments **After** that conversion. Just wanted some time to revise my planning here as it will affect how I work on future images and I'd rather get this right as early as possible.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Glenn, excellent angled pose here, and I like short rounded body of this fellow. Gotta love those reds of the head, and how the blend down onto the breast. Well exposed on the white plumage too.