I took this on a photo trip to northern Costa Rica, where I stayed in the exact middle of nowhere in San Carlos canton, at a lodge that caters to bird photographers (despite having no A/C and barely enough of an internet signal to count as WiFi). They have multiple setups that attract a variety of fruit-eating birds, but the most frequent visitors have to be these guys, brown-hooded parrots. Most of the time they just sit on the perch and look kind of boring, but every once in a while they decide to do something a bit more interesting! This guy decided to flip upside down, and barely gave me enough time to move the sensor and shoot before he decided that right-side-up was more comfortable.
The optimization started with a pano crop from the vertical raw file, then a bit of bill clean-up (the brown marks on the upper and lower mandibles are natural and appear as the beak wears), some work on the background and the eye, and a final round of light detail extractor on the breast and white facial lores. I finished by adding just a touch of brightness to the head and running noise reduction.
5D mkIV, 500mm f/4 IS, 1.4x TC III, tripod mounted at a feeder setup
1/500 @ f/6.3, ISO 1600
Fill flash w/ Better Beamer, ETTL at -2
Edited to add a higher-quality file (I hope!)
01-23-2019, 02:47 PM
Ivan Sjogren
What a beauty! You did well capturing an interesting pose instead of a simple portrait. Good BG, details and nice mossy perch. I would like to add more room to the left as the bird is leaning the head more in that direction than the right. The image looks a tiny bit cold too me as well. Otherwise great shot!
01-23-2019, 05:10 PM
John Mack
Very cool. Love the pose and the moss covered perch. Background is great as well.
01-23-2019, 08:09 PM
Isaac Grant
Super nice shot Jake of an excellent species. Fantastic pose, perch and background. I agree that the image could be warmed up a tiny bit and could maybe use a few points of black as well. Whenever I shoot with flash the images are always a little washed out and need to be built back up. Sometimes I do a levels adjustment, or curves, or add black in selective color or do all three!
01-23-2019, 11:23 PM
arash_hazeghi
pretty cool pose and a nice BG, good details and the moss on the perch is a plus. agree with adding to the blacks a bit
TFS
01-24-2019, 06:22 AM
greg cowle
Love to see an unusual pose... nice capture of the antics of the parrot.
01-25-2019, 05:40 AM
Daniel Cadieux
I love it Jake! This bird looks so friendly and whimsical. A smile-maker for sure. Great colours, perch, BG. The offered suggestions would bring it up a notch or two.
01-25-2019, 11:25 AM
Mike Poole
I love this one Jake, such a playful pose, and a great perch and BG to boot - it all fell nicely for you here, well captured.
Mike
01-31-2019, 09:20 AM
Arthur Morris
Well done with a neat pose and a perfect head angle and BKGR.