Sooty capped Bush Tanager

[Richard Unsworth]

:S3:

Created, Savegre, Costa Rica in November
Endemic to CR and Western Panama
took a loooong time to catch him in the relative open
anyone know what plant has the berries?

SS 1/160. f 5.6, ISO 800 eV +.33
7D 100-400 IS

[Don Lacy]

Hi Richard, A beautiful subject but it gets lost in its surroundings if you where to lighten him up so he is just slightly brighter then the rest of the image he would stand out and really hold the viewers eye.

[gail bisson]

Hi Richard,
I would brighten this shot and decrease the saturation in the blues and purples. Lovely little bird.I like the inclusion of the environment. I do wish he was looking a bit more towards you. I hope you repost as this could be a really lovely image with afew easy tweeks,
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the surroundings you found this fella in (garden?). What I like is that despite the "busy-ness" of the image the trio of sharp berry clusters beautifully frame the subject. I can understand wanting to include as much of the surroundings as possible, but I think it is a bit too much. A crop to uncenter the subject and reduce the clutter is warranted IMO. I also warmed the image a bit, and eliminated the blues in the whites by selecting them and reducing the saturation in the blue channel. I also did a couple of other minor tweaks (see if you can guess them).

All in all this is a very nice image, just needed a bit more in post.

[Richard Unsworth]

:S3:

Hi
thanks all

Nice repost Daniel:2eyes2:

You decreased the bright spot above the back/tail; burn or other method?

eye has been brightened, presume you selected and used levels

reduced contrast?

My whole idea was to frame him in berries and I agree on the crop, indeed I had yours also; I expected that critique lol

would still like to know plant species if anyone does know

[Greg Basco]

Hi, Richard. Daniel's repost is a great version of your image IMO, and I like the surroundings. The plant is Fuchsia paniculata, Onagraceae family. The fruits are great for tanagers and other little birds while the flowers are popular with the scintillant and volcano hummingbirds.

Cheers,
Greg

[Richard Unsworth]

:S3:

Greg thanks for the plant info, a fuschia!

So I have reworked the file from CR2 here is the repost

desat blue in white
Add warm filter
recropped
various touch ins etc and minor adjusts to contrast
hope you like

[Bill Dix]

What a sweet little bird. Repost helps keep him from getting lost, while still showing him nicely surrounded by his berry garden. Warming, brightening helps too. Repost maybe a tiny bit oversharpened?

[Jim Crosswell]

Nice image Richard! They don't call them Bush Tanagers for nothing. This is the environment I am used to seeing them in. I like what Daniel has done to this image. Well done getting an image.