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Thread: Choco Trogon, female

  1. #1
    Nate Chappell
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    Default Choco Trogon, female

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    Here's a female Choco Trogon from Rio Silanche, Ecuador. This is a fairly uncommon species so I was happy to get images of both the male and female at close range on our last tour down there. I took just a slice from the bottom.

    MkIII 500F4 1.4X 1/160 F7.1 iso 640, evaluative metering -0.3, 580ex -1.7
    Last edited by Nate Chappell; 04-30-2009 at 11:04 AM. Reason: Didn't get photo uploaded the first time.

  2. #2
    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    Nate:

    She is sharp, well exposed, with amazing color on the abdomen. Nice angle in frame. Just the right amount of flash.

    I might be tempted to remove the diagonal stick on the left, and the leaf above. Because the background is so light, those two really jump out.

    Hope you will share the male too!

    Randy

  3. #3
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    I can only imagine how challenging it was to get this image. The eye is beautifully rendered and as mentioned the colour is great. Apart from the branches, the light area in the BG is distracting and could be burned in a little.

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Beautiful species Nate! Agree with above suggestions. I would add that a bit more fill flash (an extra third or so) would have helped this image. You had a reasonably backlit subject and underexposed on the camera side of things. But you didn't increase your flash EC to offset the negative EC on the camera. The result is a slightly underexposed subject.
    Last edited by Doug Brown; 04-30-2009 at 12:27 PM.
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  5. #5
    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    Nate:
    I had a second, so I tweaked the background brightness a bit, and brought up the birds chest and head a bit.
    I think John was right about the background.

    Hopefully it still maintains the feel you were after and shows the bird well.

    Randy

  6. #6
    Axel Hildebrandt
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    Great find and details. I agree that it could go a tad brighter.

  7. #7
    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Lovely colours captured on the bird, and she is nicely framed between the two branches. In your original post, I agree the highlights in the BG were too much, and Randy has done a great job to tone them down.

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    This bird is beautiful!

    You did quite well taking on count how these guys behave in front of a camera!

    I agree about adding a bit of fill flash.

  9. #9
    Nate Chappell
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    Thanks for the comments, I think the flash is about right here, the original is a bit brighter, when I did the levels adjustment the grays and blacks darkened a bit. This species is dark gray with a black tail. With much more flash I would have been worried about blowing out the red channel and making the bird look a bit pasted from the flash. The negative exposure ambient compensation was to darken the bg a bit. I do like Randy's repost bringing down the bg a bit.
    Last edited by Nate Chappell; 04-30-2009 at 02:23 PM.

  10. #10
    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    The bird is killer and so is Randy' repost. It looks much better brighter. I wish for a cleaner look to the image but would be thrilled to have this one in my files.
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  11. #11
    BPN Viewer Steve Canuel's Avatar
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    That eye really jumps out at you. Nice use of flash and a good looking bird.

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