African Pygmy Kingfisher

[Ian Wilson]

A gorgeous little bird captured in a shady gully on the Nibela Peninsula, KZN, South Africa, on 31 March 2015.

Canon 5DIII + 600 mm f/4 II + 1.4x III extender, 600EX-RT flash, hand-held.
Manual, f/7.1, 1/200 sec, ISO 1000, fill-flash.
Processed with DPP4 and PS Elements.

Thanks for looking, critical feedback welcome and appreciated. Regards,
Ian

[Loi Nguyen]

Ian, lovely image of a beautiful bird. The flash is bit strong I think. Which mode and exposure compensation did you use for the fill flash? TFS. Loi

[Ian Wilson]

Hi Loi,
Thanks for your feedback. For the flash I used manual setting, 1/16 of full output, zoom 200 mm.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Lovely image, though i agree with Loi regarding the flash output. It looks overdone, but you probably didn't need that high an ISO. I would guess you'd have used flash as main light, which could easily yield sharp images at very low shutter speeds. I regularly shoot in low-light/night conditions and usually stick to 1/60th even hand held.
The colours are really beautiful on this.

[Grace Scalzo]

Flash is not my strong suit. When I first looked at this prior to reading the above, I was drawn in by the color, sharpness and sweetness of the tiny bird. It really looks fine to me.

[Mark Dumbleton]

Lovely image with great detail and head angle. Love the colours and I think the flash used was to great effect. The dark background helps the bird stand out perfectly IMO.
Great stuff!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Looks like the blues are glowing! Cool effect, I like it. Great pose with a perfect head angle. lots of excellent detail. There is a very small spot along the right edge (middle) that needs to be cleaned up.

[William Dickson]

Great details Ian and I love the colours that the flash has brought out. I never realised flash had been used until I read your words. Great work

Will

[stuart wanuck]

Wow well done sharp!!!!

[Karl Egressy]

Great looking image of a beautiful bird. The iridescent color are striking.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful bird, nicely shown. Thank for sharing, Ian.

[Robert Kimbrell]

Super image shot Ian, A stunner of a bird great colors and an excellent head turn. I think the flash brought out some extra color, but I would back off a little as it does appear flashed to me.

[Ian Wilson]

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments and suggestions - much appreciated. Warm regards, Ian

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent portrait of this colorful bird with a good pose and sharp details. You handled the flash very well too. I just wish you had a more handsome perch to go with the subject but this one isn't that bad either

TFS

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, HA, details, angled perch and complimentary BG. A real beauty Ian!

[Satish Ranadive]

Gorgeous image of gorgeous bird. Spectacular colors, superb details, nice BF and composition.
Love the frame.

Regards,
Satish.