Borneo: Black and Red Broadbill

[Phil Liew]

I have not posted here for a wee while. Anyway this was taken from a trip to Borneo last week along the Kinabatangan River.

This broadbill was rather "co-operative" and allowed me to get close enough to manage some full frame shots from the boat. Once again these are canopy cover birds and getting them in the clear is not always an option.

1D Mk3 + EF800 + 1.4II ext 1/60s f/10 ISO800 EV +1/3 Fill Flash -3
http://www.pbase.com/image/117392691.jpg

[Alfred Forns]

Excellent pose and rather clean under the circumstances Just the merges with the tail

Did well from the boat and the long focal length ... even with a tripod is not easy !!!

[John Chardine]

What a bird Phil! I love the image. The pose and head angle are perfect and the BG is pretty sweet. The twigs and vines at the right are a bit of a tangle and you could try a version with the thinner vines gone.

I have to comment on your techs, which tell a story! Here you are in a boat with the mkIII, 800/5.6 and 1.4 converter (1456 mm equivalent) shooting at 1/60s! I'm trying to picture this! Did you use a tripod/monopod? Maybe the boat was stable. With your shutter speed and no need to H-synch you were getting full power from the flash so I can understand -3 comp on the flash for a bird with black feathers like this. Why did you use 1/60s/f10?

[Phil Liew]

Thanks for the comments - yes, Alfred the tail end but here we grab the opportunities as they come along. At times I have asked myself if the photo should be perfect i.e. clean bg on a perfect perch but this is not representative of what the habitat of the subject is when they would normally be observed.

John - The boat is around 4m to 5m long with a flat bottom and luckily it was not choppy. Still the whole rig is set on a Wimberley II and Gitzo 1325. I do use aperture priority hence the f/10 (to compensate for the extender) and pump up the ISO to get the shutterspeeds. Minimal fill flash whenever possible for me and it is most often 2nd or rear curtain to allow the bg some ambient light to come through hence the EV +1/3 and then flash -3.

I shall post a few more over the next few days from my last trip out.

[John Chardine]

snip

Minimal fill flash whenever possible for me and it is most often 2nd or rear curtain to allow the bg some ambient light to come through hence the EV +1/3 and then flash -3.

I shall post a few more over the next few days from my last trip out.

Phil- I'm fascinated by this statement. Does it actually make a difference whether it's front or rear curtain? Please explain.

BTW I've heard that the 800/5.6 x 1.4tc combo is very sharp so I wonder if you need to shut the lens down so much?

[Phil Liew]

John,

I have chosen the following links with examples to explain it better about rear curtain. For me I prefer the bg to be "brighter" if that is my way of saying it rather that being darker like it was front lit as if it was the main source. For me it is all about illumination the back better.

http://digital-photography-school.com/slow-sync-flash
http://www.vividlight.com/Articles/611.htm
http://yanikphotoschool.com/tips/the-joys-of-rear-curtain-flash/

f/stop was set to 10 to get a better DOF. I would only go max if I was really pushed for lighting.

Bear in mind the IS on these newer lenses are good, however, at times on a boat it may be pushing it.

[Chris van Rooyen]

What an amazing looking bird! Phil you did very well to get this sharpness at 1/60th, the fill flash is really effective, and the huge DOF certainly helped as well. Great image and well planned and executed!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

What a cool-looking bird, thanks for sharing! I like the soft light, BG and sharpness, I only find the leaf left of the tail a bit distracting.

[David Thomasson]

I like the composition, including the line of the branch. And of course the bird does the hardest part by looking spectacular. I would clean
up the background to do his beauty more justice. Great capture!

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2609/borneo.jpg

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

WOW David. That is a nice rework of an image :D I am not sure.
Phil, I love this bird. Knowing how hard to photograph those beauties in Asia I love it even better.

Szimi

[John Chardine]

Yep, that's pretty nice David. Well done, and really shows what you can do.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Amazing bird and amazing repost!

Love the beak and the head turn. Again, the repost really makes justice to this beauty.

[Robert D. Gregg]

Great capture of a gorgeous bird!

BigBob...

[Simon Bennett]

Excellent image Phil. I remember seeing them on the same river a few years ago. The black and maroon plumage and bill colour are a stand-out, as is David's handiwork.

[Phil Liew]

Thanks all for your comments.

David - Fantastic work on the repost. How I wish our jungles are as open as that but we keep going back in hope.

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent detail, dof has been carefully taken care of. The repost looks cleaner but I would only take out the elements that were merging to show a little bit of habitat. Congrats

[Dave Barnes]

Superb looking bird. The repost does show it off better but agree that a bit of habitat adds to the image.Good flash work.

[Harshad Barve]

All said above , I am too late here but what a beauty this is , would love to have this in my kiity
TFS