Black-naped Monarch or Black-naped Blue Flycatcher (Hypothymis azurea)

[Gary Kinard]

Black-naped Monarch or Black-naped Blue Flycatcher (Hypothymis azurea)

7D, 1/100, 700mm, F5.6, ISO 800
These are tiny birds, the blue color makes them a target for photographers. Here in Asia.

www.flickr.com/photos/avianphotos

[Faraaz Abdool]

Beautiful bird, well isolated from the BG too. As the tail is in front of the plane of focus, it seems a little distracting. Maybe stopping down a bit could've brought more of the bird in focus, but it seems that you were shooting in not much light - so wide open was a necessity! But that's me nitpicking though. Excellent work at such a slow shutter speed too.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Well caught but for me the DOF is a little shallow at this magnification, however more importantly the eye is sharp, noise is well controlled, I would suggest smoothing the background a little so there is less contrast between the darker and paler areas.

[Gary Kinard]

I was under the canopy and it is so dark. I hate to go lower than 1/100 or higher then 800 ISO on the 7D.
I'll give the background some work and see how it comes out.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I was under the canopy and it is so dark. I hate to go lower than 1/100 or higher then 800 ISO on the 7D.
I'll give the background some work and see how it comes out.

Hi Gary I appreciate the dilemma, I have a 7D but if the image is not going to be cropped I think you may have a pleasant surprise at slightly higher ISO.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Beautiful cute bird with an amazing shade of blue, and the curved perch is very nice too. Great look-back pose. I don't have an issue with the dof with the tack-sharp face, in fact stopping down here would a worsened the BG which is already distracting in some areas IMO...smoothing it out as suggested would help the image.

[Marina Scarr]

What a nice capture you have here of a stunning bird. The head looks nice and sharp which is what matters and I can even see his whiskers. I love the way he is looking around at you. No issues with the OOF tail for me and agree with Daniel's assessment. Also understand the dilemma with your 7D. Not sure how much of a crop this image is but if you have more room, you may wish to place him a little more to the right of the frame to take him out of the middle.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Agree with Daniel....stopping down would have created a more distracting BG.

Terrific shot. Love this bird. used to be one of favorites during by childhood birding days in India. Hard to to get such a clean shot of these. Well done..excellent head turn and color.

[Arthur Morris]

Lots of good stuff above. Though I do not know this bird in life, I have got to question the blues that are so rich as to be a bit lacking in detail due to a bit of over-saturation. Removed the dust spot from the big specular highlight. Added yellow to the BLUE, desaturated and darkened the BLUE just a bit, and sharpened the face only with a Contrast Mask-USM at 15/65/0.

[Arthur Morris]

ps; I am fine with the tail and I love the look-back head angle.

[Satish Ranadive]

Gary:
Excellent image of handsome bird at 1/100 with beautiful colors and nice details.Head is tack sharp.
Love the look back pose,perch and composition.I like the repost by Arthur Sir too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Gary Kinard]

Thanks for the help my friends. Authur, that really made the image pop. Excellent.
I need to learn more PP skills. Amazing difference.