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Thread: Crimson-breasted Shrike

  1. #1
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Default Crimson-breasted Shrike

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    This one was taken on our trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park last week. One of our country's most beautiful birds IMO. This fellow was fluttering around our tent on one morning and calling gaily. I stalked him around as he flew from tree to tree and got this shot of him calling out in the open (they are normally found deep in the foliage of the trees and like to hide from lenses :)). Couldn't get too close though, so this is about 50% of the original image.

    I like how this came out with the red breast contrasted against the clear blue African morning sky. I removed some distracting twigs around the perch but the bird was in the clear for this shot. Dialed in exposure compensation of +0.3 to get more details in the dark colours. The wind was giving it a hard time from behind as well :)

    In a perfect world I would have wanted the head turned more towards me, but it's keeper for now.

    Techs:
    Canon 40D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 400mm
    f5.6 @ 1/2500 SS @ ISO-500
    Exp +0.3
    Last edited by Morkel Erasmus; 09-26-2009 at 05:17 AM.
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    I like it, the species is simply lovely, I would recomend to tone down the red channel a bit and IMO, fill flash would have helped a lot here as to compensate for the harsh light.
    Congratulaitons!

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks Ramon. in fact, this was taken @ 08h52 AM, so the light wasn't actually harsh. Is there any reason that it would come across like that due to post-processing?

    reds are as shot - that's how red their breasts are. looks exactly the same in the RAW file.
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    Fabulous bird and pose Morkel. Some good pointers from Ramon. TFS!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Morkel Erasmus View Post
    thanks Ramon. in fact, this was taken @ 08h52 AM, so the light wasn't actually harsh. Is there any reason that it would come across like that due to post-processing?

    reds are as shot - that's how red their breasts are. looks exactly the same in the RAW file.
    mmm... Not sure but if light wasn't harsh the image has too much contrast, at least on my monitor :)

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks Dave & Ramon.

    reds were slightly blown when checking in PS (thanks Stu)
    seeing as I didn't really saturate the image, I must have blown the reds with my exposure compensation...:)

    here's one from the original TIFF, applied reverse s-curve to tone contrast and selectively sharpened the beak some more...
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    Lifetime Member Loukie Viljoen's Avatar
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    Yes Dave & Ramon this is "THE RED"as is difficult to believe, the colors are the German Reich's flag colors, hence in Namibia it's common name is "Reichs Vögel".

  8. #8
    Axel Hildebrandt
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    Quote Originally Posted by Loukie Viljoen View Post
    Yes Dave & Ramon this is "THE RED"as is difficult to believe, the colors are the German Reich's flag colors, hence in Namibia it's common name is "Reichs Vögel".
    Interesting, those birds must have an identity crisis ever since the German flag changed. :)

    Cool-looking bird, BTW, and the repost looks much better on my monitor. Too bad about the steep angle.

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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Pleasure mate. The invoice is in the post. Busy characters, and lucky to get him in the open. Your repost looks much better.

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    Impressive species... Nice contrasting colors. The repost works better for me. Thanks for sharing

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    IOTY Winner 2010 Chris Kotze's Avatar
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    Super looking species, the repost looks great well captured Morkel
    Chris Kotze

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks a lot Loukie, Axel, Chris, Stu & Indranil.

    @ Axel - I was hoping all week for one to come sit somewhere eye-level for me...to no avail :)
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  13. #13
    Ákos Lumnitzer
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    Hi Morkel
    I attach the look of your color histogram and the red is just clipped on the RHS. So Ramon makes sense, but you see that already. All I did was pull the red channel in Hue/Sat back by -1 point and voila! The edge is not clipped! So I guess I do this for the benefit of anyone else looking at the thread. You could also tweak the other color channels to see if you can extract some more detail as you see them blocked on the LHS.

    :) Nice bird BTW and I like its name (you are a crack up Axel). Angle is just a little steep. Why not try its call placed near a lower perch?

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    Spectacular bird and sharp.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Akos is right on the money. The fact that "the RAW looked like that" does not change the fact that even in the repost the reds are way overexposed/oversaturated and thus without detail. I am not gonna tell you how to fix it here but I will send you to the Reducation threads in Educational Resources. Just the facts...
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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks Simon for the comment

    thanks Artie for the usual honesty :)
    I had read the REDucation threads initially when starting to use this site but went through them again now and checked the reds in the original RAW file, where only a few pixels in the mid-chest were clipped. I applied 20% cyan to the red channel and also selected highlights and multiplied in a burn-layer.

    I would like your opinion on the reworked image as well, Maestro, and also I would like to know how to get the settings right in-camera for these kinds of birds where you traditionally want to up exposure compensation for the blacks but then run the danger of clipping reds and/or whites?

    I think this version has more detail in the reds - can more be recovered from the red area?
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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    YAW. The repost looks way better but some areas may benefit from de-saturating the REDs. Also, I sometimes use a ton more CYAN.... At least you are headed in the right direction.

    And thanks for being open to suggestions.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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  18. #18
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks for replying again Artie! :)
    I'm always open for suggestions from people who know more than me, and even from people who might know less than me...'teachability' is something the world can do with more...

    I actually desaturated the reds by about 15 as well (forgot to mention), will do some...
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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    YAW. Being open to a variety of encounters--chance or otherwise--can enrich our lives in ways we could never imagine....
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    techs covered very well here
    TFS another stunning species from your jungles

  21. #21
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks Artie & Harshad Bhai

    @ Artie - you are right about that!

    @ Harshad - this bird was actually taken in a semi-desert environment :)
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