Vermillion Flycatcher

[David Bose]

I shot this Vermillion Flycatcher handheld with 400mm 5.6 + 1.4x Kenko Pro DGX on a t2i crop body in pretty harsh sunlight as he sat perched on a branch looking for his next meal.

ISO 400, f8, 1/1000, 560mm with 1.4 extender. Some tweaks in Lightoom to (Cropped quite a bit, Exposure +.48, Highlights -55, Shadows +83, Blacks -55, lightened the iris, HSL Hue reds -7)

C&C welcome.

[Alan Murphy]

Nice pose. Light looks a tad harsh. I would place him a bit higher in the frame.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Beautiful species that I would love to photograph some day. Looks harp as posted and you have a good combination of background and perch. Pointing your lens down to get the subject higher in the frame and waiting for a better head angle would have been good. As processed the reds look quite hot...I see you already reduced them in LR. If you have PS try also adding some cyan to them to see if that improves on that. If you only have LR try also reducing the luminance on them.

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful bird with nice colors.I like the pose, perch and BG.
Rest is mentioned above.

Regards,
Satish.

[David Bose]

Thanks Daniel I agree and actually I cropped this quite a bit so I can easily go back and move the bird higher in the frame. You are all correct in that parts of the reds were blown even though the image was generally under exposed. I will certainly try adding cyan and reducing luminance. A few minutes after taking a handful of shots of this bird I had what I think is an Alder Flycatcher land on the same branch and I think it came out much better. I'll likely post it later today.

I have about 3 of these males that visit every spring and spend the summer on my 12 acre property in the South Texas brush country and they are a very acrobatic and a treat to watch. I'm expecting my Painted Buntings to arrive any day.