Plain Parakeet after storm

[Geraldo Hofmann]

Plain Parakeets are among the most common birds in the city of São Paulo, but they are still among my favorites. I like their behavior and their vibrant green. This bird was in the city-center feeding on nectar of flowers right after a heavy storm. As the background was an old ugly building I decided to take the grey and cloudy sky as background and underxpose it for 1.3 stops the bird got its light by flash. I wanted to create a black and white picture with a vibrant green parakeet. I am not happy with the red flower in the upper right corner but the bird never perched in a better position.

Regards Geraldo

EOS 1Ds MarkII 500mm f=10 t=/1250 ISO

http://www.hofmann-photography.de/BAN/Brotogeris%20tirica-1594.jpg

[Dave Blinder]

Great detail, lighting, and timing Gerald. Frame is pretty tight on the left side. Flowers on the right side look easy to clone out for an alternative version.

[David Fletcher]

Super vibrant colors Geraldo. As mentioned, tight on the left and if have canvas, that might be an attractive option. Would clone out the two red flowers. Very nice and thanks for sharing.

[subramanya_ck]

Nice capture. I like the way you have retained the flowers, but a little more space in front of the bird would have been even better.

[Stu Bowie]

Striking colours on the parakeet, and nice and sharp. I like the feeding behaviour too. I would maybe run some NR on the BG.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the angle and eye contact, sharpness and feeding behavior look good, too. Cloning out the flower in the upper right would not be very difficult. I agree regarding NR in the BG and would remove one of the catchlights. What flash settings did you use? If it were mine I would put the bird a bit further to the right in the frame.

[Fabs Forns]

Very interesting composition, nothing left to chance :)
The way the two petals are, make a good reason to brake the rules and place the bird looking out of the picture. If this were mine, I'd keep the compo as is.

[Geraldo Hofmann]

Thank Y'all for your comments and advise,
I appreciate it very much!

Well to the left was a bright yellow billboard so I decided to include the two petals as a diagonal leading to the one in the bird's beak. And I am not a big fan of removing background in photoshop - nothing wrong with it I just don't do usually with my own pictures.


The flash was set on manual and was underexposing by half a stop ... the green is very reflective and easily gets to bright.

Geraldo

[Arthur Morris]

Well to the left was a bright yellow billboard so I decided to include the two petals as a diagonal leading to the one in the bird's beak. And I am not a big fan of removing background in photoshop - nothing wrong with it I just don't do usually with my own pictures. The flash was set on manual and was underexposing by half a stop ... the green is very reflective and easily gets to bright. Geraldo

I do not mind the two flowers in the upper right. One problem is that your flash might have been mis-aligned as the flowers on the right got much more flash than the flower in the bird's bill (I love that BTW.)

Lastly, if the flash was in manual (mode) how did you know that it was "underexposing by half a stop"???

[Geraldo Hofmann]

Thanks

I just realize that the flower the bird is nibbling on is darker. This is strange as the flash was an old Metz-Unit which covers a lens around 35mm focal length. As I really had to look for a window with nothing blocking the view of the bird; the only explanation I can think of is that the light beam has been blocked by some twigs or other flowers. When I work in manual I usually calculate my aperture using f-stop = flash guide number/subject to flash distance. With themy old Metz 45 this is pretty correct when working inside a room; but it is around 0.5 stops to dark when outside. With less shiny birds I would have opened the aperture for 0.5 to 1 stop.

I often go for a darker background and use flash for the bird, in particular when I am working in big cities or with distracting background. IMHO it daws more attention to the bird, my wife hates this style, for her this is cheating.

Geraldo

[Arthur Morris]

Geraldo, Thanks for the info on your flash technique. You can use the same technique without all the math by checking the histogram just making sure that you have some data in the highlight box (and you can do it this way even if you are intentionally underexposing the BKGR).