Hi, on my trip with Doug Brown we had some pretty nice looks at the emerald (aka blue-throated) toucanet, and I had a pretty good encounter myself the other day here at my house. We have some clay-colored robins nesting on our front porch, and the emerald toucanets have been coming close to raid their nests. I happened to be able to get up very close on one of the toucanets after he bumped into a window. He flew away just fine seconds later, thankfully!
I appreciate any suggestions. Please note that I chose to shoot this without fill-flash to have a sense of shadow and kind of dramatic lighting on the bird.
Tech: Canon 40D, Canon 300 mm f2.8, f5.6, ISO 200, 1/400, handheld, full-frame, post-processing slight saturation boost, a bit of cleanup in the eye, and some NR on background
I like the composition and open bill and would try to get more details in the blacks and lighten the eye. I might desaturate a few points and wider DOF would have been great.
Even though it is a very colorful bird, I think the background is so vivid that it somewhat overpowers the bird.
I agree with Axel about desatting a bit. I would try just desatting and perhaps toning down the brightness of the background a bit, let the bird dominate the image.
I played with this lovely image for a while, tried a lot of tweaks to the background, color balance, warmth, contrast, etc. Never found something that I was really happy with. The only thing that I thought was an improvement for me was to bring up some of the shadow detail on the face. I know you mentioned the fill flash issue, but am curious if you find this acceptable.
Great profile shot Greg! Nice to get such a close encounter. Here's my version. Some sharpening of the OOF feathers, because I agree with Axel that a little more DOF would have helped (I had the Canon service people check out ISO 400 on that body and it passed with flying colors :)). I darkened the BG a little and I lightened and sharpened the eye a bit.
Amazing portrait of a beautifull species, great BG, detail and colors! I miss the fill flash, sory :) and also, I would've gone probably to ISO 400 to achieve not only a bit more SS but also to be able to use a smaller aperture to achieve more DOF. Still, amazing image, Congratulatinos!
Very nice portrait of this toucanet. I like to see this guy with its open beak.
I guess Doug's version is my favorite so far, I agree about the BG, is too over powering, it competes with your subject.
I also agree about stopping down a little. It's nice to see that you were very considered with this fellow (by not using flash) since he had an accident and may be wanted to recover before going back to the robin's nests.
Hi, and thanks for your replies. Well, this certainly shows the range of tastes we have. I really appreciate the reposts. I actually did a little of my own, desaturating the BG as Randy suggested but then going the other way and upping the blacks. To my taste, it adds a bit of drama whereas lightening the throat, though I certainly appreciate the thinking in showing detail in the whole bird, makes it a fairly standard portrait. So, here is the final version I will go with to print.
By the way, yes, I should have stopped down to f8 -- was just about to do so when he took off. I probably would have kept it at ISO 200 though as I envisioned this as suitable for a fair sized print, and I think that images printed large lose quality beyond 200. Perhaps I'm wrong but in my limited experience that's the case. Doug, I may try a little extra sharpening on the feathers at bottom right -- good idea.
Greg, I find when shooting close to try and use a smaller aperture to get more DOF. I like the detail on the beak and eye, and I prefer Randy's version of a lighter BG.
Cracking image Greg! I like the original. To me the green BG is realistic although I might not have thought so before my visit to Costa Rica! I also like Greg's repost for the sense of drama that it conveys. The depth of field doesn't really bother me.
Best,
Nicki