This attractive little forest bird of eastern Australia winters in tropical northeastern Queensland, but migrates in breeding season to the temperate southeastern states including Tasmania, where its distinctive calls and perky courtship behaviour add interest to our woodlands each spring and summer. Lighting conditions were difficult in mixed forest in dappled sunlight, but a briefly held pose caught this bird's beautiful throat-chest colour and picked up a suggestion of iridescent blue on her crest. The strong cross-lighting highlighted the edges of the folded wing feathers.
Equipment: Canon EOS 7D II, EF 100-400 L IS II + 1.4x III TC, at 560mm, centre spot servo AF, handheld, shutter priority, 1/500 sec, f8, ISO 400, spot metering.
Processing: Quite a big crop, to about 30% of original frame width, a broader crop was precluded by the number of intrusive branchlets and other distractions around. To my eye it seems to have held up OK? Adobe CC2015 Lightroom/Photoshop, noise reduction with Neat Image plugin. Some distracting highlights in the background were suppressed using customised luminosity masks. Some additional sharpening of bird and perch with Unsharp Mask.
Nice looking bird and background. To me, I think the image quality has suffered from the big crop in terms of details and noise, but wait to hear what others say. I feel the bird is a bit too large in frame, so that may help. I wish the bird had been turning towards you as opposed to away from you. Thanks for sharing this,
Satin Flycatcher female
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