Another Ecuadoran Kingfisher

[ChasMcRae]

Imagine a five(5) inch Kingfisher that flys like a Bumblebee, and loves to perch beneath overhanging limbs along small dark Amazon streams. This describes the Pygmy Kingfisher. Due to drought the lower limbs were more exposed making it a little easier,but most sightings were after the bird flew.The picture was shot from a dugout canoe with Indian guide. I had the ISO cranked up to 800 and that plus a "noisy" camera resulted in a noisy picture. Trying to clone and do otherthings on this noisy pic was tough for me since it all stood out like a sore thumb. I there fore cropped things I didn't like for a tight crop. I think I was using a tripod in the canoe but not sure because it varied.


Chas.

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Firmware: Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows
Date/Time: 2007:02:13 06:15:23
Shutter speed: 1/200 sec
Aperture: 4.5
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: On
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 800
Focal length: 600mm
Image size: 749 x 800
Rotation: none
Color space: sRGB
Color profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1

[Ramon M. Casares]

I think you went too far with the PP, the bird looks detail-less and at the same time too oversharpened, color and BG are good, but I can't get pass the things I just mentioned, I would like to see the ORIG so to help you make a better PP.

[ChasMcRae]

Pygmy_Kingfisher before !

Thanks

[Ramon M. Casares]

Thank you Charles for sharing this with us, well, my first advice to yuo wold be that when you have a noisy image, avoid crop, for web use, when you resize the file usually the nise goes away and if you haven't croped it, even more, what I did here was just a little crop to give a pano format and then I just work with the BG removing noise and distracting elements and with the bird, correcting the eye and removing a bit of noise, I didn't sharpened it, as this would've, in this case, brought up the noise in the bird. I didn't do much, I think that only avoiding crop, this image is good enought at least for web use! Congratulations!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like Ramon's crop idea. Great colors and beautiful bird. I wish for a bit wider DOF and head turn toward you.

[ChasMcRae]

Thanks for the advice.
The vertical whitish limb on the left still bugs me.
I note that Ramon brought the image down to 60 Kb-was this to help with noise ?
Thanks for comments. Shooting tropical birds/animals much more difficult for me technically than in other settings
Chas..

[Ramon M. Casares]

Hi Charkes, nop, those 60.5 KB is just as it came out, don't mind that.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Like Ramon's post a lot and the image is beautiful Charles. What a gorgeous species it is. Many thanks for sharing it with us.

[Linda Robbins]

You were certainlly working in difficult circumstances - ISO 800 with a shutter speed of 1/200 at f/4.5 from a dugout canoe! There wasn't much more you could do in that situation. Ramon's repost with the wider view works better than the cropped original. The bird is amazing, but the image suffers from the shallow depth of field which gave you a sharp head but a very unsharp body. Wish also for either a forward pose or more of a head turn. You did a great job of eye doctoring!

[ChasMcRae]

Well Linda thanks, I very nice velvet glove critique.

You are right not a whole of lot of options on this species. If anyone in watching this exchange I would love to see other images of the Pygmy Kingfisher posted and comments on how they were obtained.

Just curious,because I had a heck of a time trying to get an image.

Chas.

[Grady Weed]

Linda has a gift for the velvet glove critique technique doesn't she? Well done Linda. If I may...

I too have had a very difficult time with my 2 local Belted Kingfishers on Long Pond. I go out in my 14ft Kayak or Canoe, at 5 am in the summer for 3 hours, paddle around a 50 acre pond, usually 2 times, using my Canon MK2n with my 2.8 300 and 2x sitting in my lap. I have a grand total of 2 years doing so with only 4 keepers, in my lowly view. Some have purchased them for hanging on the wall and some here on the forums want me to keep trying for better, which I agree.

Some images are starters, we keep them to give ourselves a boost, to show off to close friends who understand how hard it is to do this and come away with an identifiable image worthy of keeping if only for "look at what I was able to capture" effects. IMHO that is what you have here. Not a junk image or a National Geographic magazine quality either. But certainly one worth keeping, with a little PS work as Ramon did.

Please take this for what it is worth, encouragement! The background branches take away, too glaring and sticky like in the raw file. Your posted version is way too cropped. Ramon's version is just right for a web display or bird id. Keep it for a starter image, then go get them! Keep asking yourself how to improve, what can I do different to get the keeper I REALLY want. Never settle for so so, not that you are doing so.

This forum and the site as whole will help you do just that. James, Blake, Robert, Linda and the rest of the gang here are excellent artists, not just photographers. Listen for what you can use, then put it to use when you can. I truly hope you get a great shot as you wish. By the way, for the circumstances, you did good! Keep trying.

[ChasMcRae]

Thanks for the note Grady ,but not many repeat chances for exotic species such as this.

Again would like to see other posts of this species and discussion on how they were obtained. Might help when? I get back to Amazon-South America.

Chas.