Red-rumped Parrot

[Simon Bennett]

Male Red-rumped Parrot photographed at a local waterhole. I've found it quite hard to adequately capture the plumage of some parrots, due I think to structural reflectance in the the plumage, i.e. my images often looked washed out especially with fill flash. This morning I thought I would experiment with a Sto-fen gold diffuser on the flash with this result. The bird was in shade.

Canon 40D, EF500IS + 1.4 tc, 580EX flash + Sto-fen gold diffuser, partial metering, fec 0, ISO400, 1/125, f/7.1, full frame.

[Ian Colley]

Hi Simon, your experiment paid off, plenty of detail in the feathers, slight eye highlight and a nicely balanced image. The angle of the perch and bird really create a nice composition.

[Sid Garige]

Wonderful bird and well composed image. Like the details and pose.

[Del Cockroft]

The Sto-fen has worked very well, Simon. I can see the iridescence on my screen. Nicely done.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Beautiful bird and well-exposed. Saturation and details look good, too. The perch seems to have a slight blue cast, maybe you could increase the color temperature a tad.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Very successful experiment. Stunning species:D

[Linda Robbins]

What a gorgeous parrot! Beautiful pose , vibrant color and sharp detial. Agree with Axel on the blue cast on the perch. Nice capture.

[Thonnaksar NOP]

The grey tone of the perch and the background bring out the colours of the plumage very well. It's a very nice capture.
I've shot this specie many times but never experienced any difficulty on exposure. What I can say is you need to set your WB spot on, especially with mixed lights.

[Julian Robinson]

Bloody fantastic Simon!