Crimson-Collared Tanager

[Doug Brown]

We went to Costa Rica's Rancho Naturalista mainly to do multiple-flash hummingbird photography. However there were plenty of other great birds there. I'd been trying to get a decent photo of a Crimson-Collared Tanager for the past three trips to Costa Rica. I finally got a sliver of an opportunity at Naturalista. This was my best image.

http://birdwhisperer.smugmug.com/photos/528779088_iXtes-O.jpg

Canon 1D Mark III, 500mm + 1.4x, f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 800, fill flash, tripod

[Fabs Forns]

beautiful bird, Doug, glad you were able to capture him!
I like the compos, but I'd burn the perch and desaturate the red to get more detail in the chest and head.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks Fabs. I'm just now looking at the image on my laptop for the first time and the reds look a little blown. They look much better on my desktop monitor (a calibrated 30" Apple Cinema Display). I actually did desaturate the reds by 9 in Lightroom before processing in CS4. Go figure.

[Stu Bowie]

Doug, the blacks look very well exposed on my screen, as I can see great detail on the face, wing, and a little on the belly. Im not familiar with the red, but it doesnt look blown to me - I could be wrong. Lovely pose, and this is nice and sharp. Comp wise, I would take off at the bottom just below the fork. Still, congrats on your capture.

[Nancy A Elwood]

Doug I have loved your offerings from Costa Rica!!! I just might have to sign up for one of your trips! The colors are just wonderful. I agree with Fabs about decreasing the brightness of the perch and possibly taking a bit off the bottom, but the exposure looks great on my monitor. Big congrads!!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Doug I am glad you were able to capture a wonderful image of this great tanager.

I desat the reds by 15 points, to me this is more or less how this fellow looks on the forest, correct me if I am wrong, dealing with reds could be hard at times.

Lovely image, I agree about to tone down the perch.:)

[Michel Pilon]

Hello Doug,

What a remarkable picture of an "unknown to me" splendid bird!

The colors are wonderful and you manages perfectly the exposition in order to obtain all those great black tones! The bg is awesome also enhancing greatly the bird itself. The only thing maybe is that the beak is terminating too close to the branch.

Great capture and great post!!!

Thanks for sharing!

Michel

[Chris Kotze]

Awesome looking bird, beautiful colours and well exposed. It would have been a huge bonus if he faced the other way:)

[Juan Aragonés]

Superb image Doug. I agree about the saturation of the red channel but you know how much easy is to fix that in PS.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Beautiful bird, great details and eye contact. The blacks look good on my monitor and I like the idea of toning down the perch a bit.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the input everyone! Here's a repost with a toned-down perch and a little desaturation of the reds.

[Dan Brown]

Cool bird and great repost Doug! I totally missed this guy on the trip!

[Ramon M. Casares]

That thrid repost is great, lover this shot! THe detail, colors, BG and pose are lovely! Congratulatons!

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Doug!
Love your repost - I don't recall seeing this bird either - Dan, we must have been looking the other way!!!
Best,
Nicki

[Keith Bauer]

Hi Doug!
Love your repost - I don't recall seeing this bird either - Dan, we must have been looking the other way!!!
Best,
Nicki

Count me in on the group who missed it!! Dang. A beautiful bird, nicely captured. I like the repost much better.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Doug, your repost looks just right to me - and the perch looks alot better now. I am somewhat distracted by the perch merging with the breast and the bill quite close to it, but with seemingly so few opportunities with this species I would be ecstatic with this :-)

[Art Kornienko]

Repost looks real nice, love the colours and lighting.

[Doug Brown]

You guys must have been snoozing!

[Greg Basco]

Doug, I believe Nicki, Keith, and Dan were drinking booze down in the restaurant while everyone else was shooting :-) The last repost is very nice -- great job on the feather details in this beautiful bird.

Cheers,
Greg

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

What, us, boozing in the restuarant?? - whatever gave you that idea Greg??!!!!!
Best,
Nicki

[Greg Basco]

You're right, Nicki. Actually I think it was me boozing in the restaurant.

Cheers,
Greg

[Keith Bauer]

You're right, Nicki. Actually I think it was me boozing in the restaurant.

Cheers,
Greg

Actually I think this must have been one of those the guides saw and quickly grabbed their cameras......... Oh yeah, telling the participants about it was optional:) Just kidding. Sure wish I would have been around to see it. Oh well. Still captured many wonderful images on the incredible trip to Costa Rica, thanks to Greg, Doug and of course Jose!!

[Glenn Bartley]

Wow! Very nice DOug. Fantastic capture.

[Tom Kilroy]

Count me in on those who didn't hear about this one until later. I did see it later, but not clearly after the Tequila.