No tweaking of the colours this time, auto WB, Just a bit cropped for composition and overall mild non selecive USM applied in CS2 and downsized for web.
D300, AFS 600mm f4, 1.4X TC on a Kirk Window Mount
1/40s f/6.3 ISO 800, ambient light, no flash used bcos of the highly reflective blue feathers (which turn out really fake looking even with the slightest fill flash)
C&C welcome
chien
07-24-2008, 06:33 AM
Aristotle Georgiou
Great capture of a beautiful bird. Like the composition, background and superb colors.
07-24-2008, 06:46 AM
Fernando Cerra
Perfect colors, background, incredible species !
07-24-2008, 08:48 AM
carole wiley
It looks a bit dark to me and the light urh corner is a distraction. I would like to see more head detail. Nice pose, sharp, beautiful bird. I like the perch.
07-24-2008, 09:49 AM
Glenn Bartley
Really cool bird. Was he coming in to be fed those worms? I know some pitta's in Ecuador have been conditioned to do so.
07-24-2008, 11:00 AM
Daniel Cadieux
I agree the blacks in the face are too dark, and to me the eye needs a bit of work (the speckled catchlights look odd). Keep them coming, Chien...I really enjoy viewing these new species (for me anyhow) you present us :-)
07-24-2008, 12:09 PM
Grady Weed
Daniel and Carole have covered the most obvious and important items to look at and then fix. I would think the effort needed to work on this one is worth it. Please keep clicking and posting. BPN is the best site on the web for critiques and learning.
07-24-2008, 01:49 PM
Juan Aragonés
The blacks on the face needs some additional work but is just a minor detail. The overall image quality is excelent. the worms in the beak are the ice on the cake. Please keep them coming :-)
07-24-2008, 08:26 PM
Tsechien
Thank you everybody for the valuable feedback and I am glad that you are enjoying seeing some of the south east asian species here.
Glenn - This bird was bringing the worms to feed 3 hungry chicks in the nest and had gathered them from the ground nearby. They nest right on the ground and the parents would first hang on 2 regular low perches to check that the coast was clear before plunging down to the nest. Feeding birds / baiting bird to get them near is rarely if ever practised in these parts and is frowned upon by the bird watching (note the distinction from bird photography :cool: ) community.
