My first ever photography session with one of these, and actually my first good sighting of one. I was photographing a warbler from the side of a calm road that has forest on both sides when I heard this guy calling from deeper in the woods - at least I had a hunch it may have been this species. Turned on the audio and there it approached from the tree tops. Cool, it pays to learn bird songs! Anyhow, I put together this impromptu setup and tried calling it in, and it worked. Not many good branches to chose from there but this one was OK...I need to go back better prepared :-) The setup is about three feet from the ground, on the road's shoulder with the low growing grasses edging the forest as background. I placed the setup in shade under tall trees as it was way too sunny and harsh otherwise. I photographed from my small car's backseat pointing backwards out through my open hatchback door - a new technique that I found quite comfortable.
Anyhow, I've read many accounts of how the reds on this species is a toughie to process...it's true as I struggled with the reds here! Although tough to discern resized, there is detail there but quite borderline and anymore saturation added and big smudges appear. Quite the colour!
Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/5.6, ISO 800, natural light, handheld as detailed above, cropped for comp, reds tweaked by adding cyan and reducing blacks in "selective color", overall color temp cooled down as it was too orange / yellow for my taste. Eye work to rid of extra reflections.
A very good shot - lovely background, great pose, excellent sharpness and a magnificient bird. The setup is excellent for my liking... and yes, it usually pays to know the bird songs :)
A great shot, the Tanager looks really good, obviously great PP work. I like the comp very much, BG is very nice. A really nice example of a great looking species.
I would like to hear more about the impromptu setup as that is something I need to get much better at. Besides the branch you used, did you place any bait or audio speaker under the perch? What was the perch secured to and how? I know these are basic questions (and yes, I've bought Alan Murphy's guides), but the engineer in me is very curious about what you actually did in putting this together in the field on the spur of the moment.
Lucky you to get this guy to come down to your setup. Good call on the call:) The scene looks great and I like the minimal perch you chose. Reds look good with nice detail although it looks like more detail could have been gotten from the blacks. Nice work Daniel.
Hi Daniel
Never seen one so can't comment on the colours etc but looks a great little guy. Is the perch growing or as I do stuck in a water bottle ?? That one left leaf looks a little poorly .
Great shot though.
JohnR
Great shot of this nice looking bird, Daniel.
It seems to me that there are more reports of them this year than usual.
They probably did well last year to increase the population.
Beautiful shot of this beauty. Yes, they are brilliant scarlet. But I'm more in awe of your fieldcraft. Rigging an impromptu setup perch in the field, and then getting the bird to perch on it, is amazing. Especially for a bird that tends to like the high canopy. Wonderful pose and bg, and good exposure. When pushed to find a nit, I think I can see where you snapped off a few twigs to give him a perching spot.
Barry, I have a few music stands (minus the sheet "tray" at top) that I carry with me, or have in the trunk of my car. They look like miniature tripods, very light and compact, and height adjustable. At their shortest height they are about 30 inches tall and extend telescopically to about five feet in height. I use those to clamp perches onto and adjust the height for the background (I use spring clamps). Yes, a speaker is placed near the perch, in this case a few feet away to the side (sometimes directly underneath, sometimes a little further out). It is also useful for seed eaters with seeds placed underneath or by the side (depending which poses I am going for).
John, this perch was cut fresh on the spot in the forest.
Bill, I seem to have been luckier than usual this spring in attracting birds where I want to, but it is not always as easy. I tried three other species at this location and although all respond to the call none landed on my setup (although a warbler did land on an acceptable spruce branch nearby). It is always worth trying though...
Last edited by Daniel Cadieux; 05-27-2014 at 02:11 PM.
I would die if I saw one of these stunning birds, much less have a chance to photograph it!
Oversaturated reds (and yellows) are a common problem for users of LR/ACR, if you let it use the default profile of Adobe Standard in the Camera Calibration tab. Look through the others and find one that shows more detail, but it will be at the expense of duller reds. Then it's easy to bring up the reds in the Main tab, but not with Saturation. Use the HSL tab.
Daniel, your field craft is impressive to get this bird landed where you wanted it. This is the toughest part of Avian photography I think. The rest is already mentioned. Loi
Lovely shot I would have suggested removing some yellow from the reds, using Hue Saturation>yellow also not to sure about the colour of the greens, but this is a great image.
I have tried Diane's suggestion on a red fox image I posted previously in the wildlife section and it works the yellows were tamed.
Scarlet Tanager.
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