Rainbow Bee-eater
Nikon D300, TC-14E teleconverter, Nikon 200-400mm VR, tripod, hide.
Two flash heads both at 1/4 power, triggered by Pocket Wizards.
IS0 500, 1/250th sec, f/11.
Noise Ninja on BG. Lots of dodging and burning.
These birds migrate from northern Australia to the southern states for summer. I reckon I probably only have another month or two to photograph these birds before they disappear again for another 7-9 months.
Last edited by Jon Thornton; 02-04-2009 at 06:31 AM.
WOW or words to that effect.
Very impressive looking specimen. I would only smooth out the darker spots above the head and LLC.
Beautiful.
BG , color , exposure and detail all come together to make an outstanding image.
Hey Jon...Real nice job on this one....From exposure, sharpness, placement and backround all come together to make a beautiful image!!
Great head angle, colors and BG. I might sharpen a bit less and work on the catchlight.
ummm...I think I would spend the entire "last" month photographing this bird. What a beauty! You did a nice job, showing him off.
Agree this is great. Structural colour like this is difficult because the result can be harsh, and in soft light the colours don't show up as well. The bird seems a little cramped up top and to the right.
Thanks for commenting Ken, Daniel, Joe, Dave, Axel, Glenda and John.
Daniel, I think I could avoid the dark areas by adjusting my shooting position slightly. I might try this.
Axel, I think you are right about the catchlight. There were two catchlights; one from each flash. I might have cloned out the wrong one.
John, I disagree with you about the bird being cramped, but I do think the crop needs work. The bird seems unbalanced within the frame. He just isn't sitting quite in the right spot. Perhaps this is what you meant. If so, then I completely agree with you.
I will post at least one more Bee-eater shot. I thought I would start with a simple portrait and follow up with some behaviour shots.
This is what I was thinking about Jon (excuse the quick cloning of the perch etc). I agree, I think another way of saying it is that the bird did not seem to be in the right part of the frame. Anyway, see what you think.
I think easing off on the sharpening too. Beautiful shot though.
Art, that was what I was going to say too, it looks a bit oversharpened, the rest has been said. Congratulaitons! Terrific species.
Wonderful image Jon. Great light, pose and background.
Stunning! Love colors and detail captured so perfectly.
John, thanks for the cropping suggestion.
Art, I think the sharpness is largely due to the way I lit this shot. The light angles created lots of little shadows around each feather barbule. This in turn increased the micro-contrast in the shot making the bird look much sharper than it would if it were lit by natural light. I use this approach occasionally to add a bit of variety to the look of my shots.
Ramon, Gerard and James, thanks for commenting.
I think this is one reason why structural colour is such a challenge to capture.Originally Posted by Jon Thornton
John, I'm not what relevance structural colour has to the sharpness of this image. Colour and B&W versions of this image have identical sharpness.
What techniques would you use to accurately capture structural colour (colour caused by interference effects) as opposed to colour caused by pigments?
Jon-This is opinion, not established fact, but I suspect that the sheen or outright shine that one sees in brightly-lit structural colour gives the appearance of over-sharpening when in fact it's not. I have noticed this effect in male Mallard heads, lit by direct sun. The effect disappears in soft light.
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