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Flame Bowerbird
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Flame Bowerbird (Sericulus aureus).
One from 2013 that I thought I'd share as this bizarre species isn't photographed all that often. The red/orange is ultra reflective and difficult with flash, impossible without it. I was lucky to time my arrival at Kiunga with the departure of the BBC film crew and was able to make use of the hide they had set up over the three days I was there.
Nikon D4, 420 mm, f/4, 1/320s, 1SO 1250, Tripod, flash
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Like the frame, perch, pose and eye contact. I have no experience with the bird but it looks to me the red is bit over saturated so some details are missing. Could be I'm wrong. Nice bird. TFS.
Cheers,
Miro
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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That's an astonishingly beautiful bird Matt, but I think Miro is on the right track. It looks to me as if it were slightly overflashed. As you probably know, brightly colored plumage is tough to expose accurately against such a dark background. My guess is that a stop or so less flash would have given you the light you needed without losing that feather detail.
Not sure, but I seem to recall a 1/250 sec max flash sync speed for that camera. Were you using a high-speed sync setting (multiple, high-speed flash pulses) of some kind on your flash?
Russ Norwood
www.perceptivist.com
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Now that's an amazing bird! I can imagine it would be really tough to expose perfectly. I think you came pretty close, but you might be able to eke a little more detail out of the red channel. Thanks for sharing this beauty.
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BPN Member
Matthew,
Beautiful bird and pose but looks flat do to the flash, I still would like to have this in my collection.
-Tim
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Super Moderator
very colorful specie, but as mentioned the red channel is totally blown, you need to go back to raw and then down the reds quite a bit
TFS
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Originally Posted by
Russ Norwood
Not sure, but I seem to recall a 1/250 sec max flash sync speed for that camera. Were you using a high-speed sync setting (multiple, high-speed flash pulses) of some kind on your flash?
Thanks Russ - the settings were TTL High sync, no strobe return and yes above 1/250 @ 1/320. Unfortunately I couldn't get the flash off the camera which I think was the biggest problem here, tnx.
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Lifetime Member
What a great looking bird and you did well capturing it. The colors are awesome and the detail looks really nice too. Looks like that red is so vivid that getting it right is tough but I think it looks pretty good considering. Well done
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