This bird, a Bare-crowned Antbird, is the ultimate skulker. Lives deep in the rain forests of Central America, and although it can fly, it usually is seen on or near the ground. This shot was taken from a boat in Costa Rica in the Cano Negro Wildlife Reserve. The boatman, a master guide named Chambita, heard the bird calling and steered the boat through the root filled canal and found him. He sat for a short time and allowed us to take multiple shots. Unfortunately the right side of the image was severely backlit with light coming through the branches. The image has been cropped from the R and bottom. A number of bright spots were partially cloned to reduce their brightness. Otherwise, BG slightly brought down and blurred.
Canon R5, 600 f/4.0 + 1.4XT, from a boat. SS 1/250, ISO 6400, f/5.6. Processed in PS and DeNoiseAI.
04-21-2023, 02:42 AM
Ian McLachlan
I have found the situations very difficult .Looks to me you did a good job with almost no light.Beautiful bird.
04-21-2023, 02:44 AM
Andreas Liedmann
Hi James ... great to see something different .
Nice bird and you did well with the shooting conditions , just think the subjects is too far pressed into the left side IMHO.
TFS Andreas
04-21-2023, 04:04 AM
Jonathan Ashton
I think you did a very good job on the processing, the background didn't help nor did the light but you ended up with a good result.
04-21-2023, 12:20 PM
William Dickson
I agree with the comments above.....I think cropping in from the RHS would help the position of the bird in the frame...
Will
04-23-2023, 10:21 AM
Kurt Bowman
Excellent job shooting in very low light! I agreee about the placement of the bird, easy fix with a crop on the RHS.
04-23-2023, 02:27 PM
James Babbitt
1 Attachment(s)
Different crop
Thanks to everyone. I probably have a more difficult time deciding on a crop than any other editing task. Sometimes it is obvious-a distracting element needs to be cropped away. Other times it is more difficult for me-more room for the bird to "breathe" or less room to emphasize the bird. I have cropped this shot to bring eye of bird more to the "rule of thirds". I did not have more room to the L as there was an OOF tree that was very distracting.
04-24-2023, 07:40 PM
Daniel Cadieux
Cool bird with that blue mask. Nice look-back pose. Tough conditions, but you made the most out of it. I know this is natural debris, but I'd be tempted to use the spot removal tool on most of the white specks on the plumage.
04-27-2023, 03:58 PM
Arthur Morris
Agree with Daniel on the specks. Pretty darned good job at 840mm from a boat at 1/250 sec!