Andean Cock of the Rock

[Joe Brown]

1D MarkIV, 300mm2.8, 1.4TC
f7.1, 1/15, -0.67, ISO 5000,
Cropped, noise reduction, sharpening, adjustment of exposure and contrast, removal of a couple of oof branches.
Taken at dawn in very low light at Angel Paz Bird Refuge, Ecuador.
I feel very lucky to have gotten this shot as there were only two males at the lek the morning we were there and they remained mostly hidden behind the vegetation during the show. In my confusion, I had my camera set at f7.1 rather than my usual f5.6.

Joe

[Randy Stout]

Joe:
What an unusual looking bird with amazing reds, well exposed.
At first I thought you somehow cloned out the bill, but I assume it is tucked up under that amazing crown.

Some noise in the background, but pretty darn good with that ISO>
Pretty sharp for that shutter speed.:)

I might consider darkening or removing the leaf touching his tail, but overall the environmental component really give us a feel of his world.

Thanks for sharing, a new one for me.

Cheers

Randy

[Joe Brown]

Thanks for the comments Randy.
You can just see the tip of the beak peaking out of the point on the bottom of the head. The location of this bird's eye is very unusual. They must have difficulty seeing what they eat.

Joe

[Randy Stout]

Joe:

I agree, the eye position is really extreme!
When they feed, I would guess they have to turn there head back and forth a lot to locate the food. Would be interesting to observe that behaviour.

Cheers

Randy

[Rohan Kamath]

What a magnificent looking bird. The feel of the habitat has been captured very nicely here. With that ISO and Shutter-speed, it looks much better than what one could normally expect.



-Regards,
Rohan
__________________________________________________ _
Conservation begins at HOME... We CAN make a difference...

[Daniel Cadieux]

Man, I had to study this image a bit to figure out the face!! Is the bill always hidden this much, or sometimes more visible? Must have been very dark considering the techs...but I kinda like the dark forest mood it gives. Lightening it up a tad is a viable option if you wish. There is some cloning evidence above the perch...just a bit of tidying-up there needed. I would also reduce the blueish cast on the whites.

Very cool, thanks for sharing this beauty!

[Joe Brown]

Daniel, they have a very small bill which is usually hidden. I have cleaned the cloning, and removed the leaf at it's tail.
I tried adjusting the wb to remove the blueish cast but found that the brilliant red of the bird changed leaning more toward orange. I really want to avoid this as the red colour is very characteristic of these birds.
Joe

[Daniel Cadieux]

Joe, an alternative to remove said cast would be to go to Hue/Saturation, and desaturate the blue channel only by about 50 to 60 points. This way the reds will remain the untouched.

Another important tip would be to convert your image to sRGB before posting to web...for many people the vivid colours of your image are not as pronounced when posted online when leaving it to RGB...:)

[Alan Murphy]

Great habitat shot.

[Arthur Morris]

Strange bird indeed. May we assume that you were on a tripod? How did you wind up at -2/3 stop EC?

[Joe Brown]

I didn't use a tripod but I did steady the camera on the railing of the blind. In AV mode the camera appeared to be over exposing the shot specially the bird. So I dropped it down -2/3 to get the exposure I wanted.
Joe

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Joe. Please explain what you were basing this statement on: "the camera appeared to be over exposing the shot specially the bird."

[Joe Brown]

I find that when shooting in low light situations the camera tends to over expose the shot. By checking a trial shot on the LCD screen I concluded that a certain amount of negative exposure compensation was required. With 0 exposure comp. the vivid red head of the bird appears to be blown out with very little detail.
I appreciate your feedback on this.

Joe

[Arthur Morris]

Joe: when it comes to judging exposure we recommend that folks look only at the histogram, not at the LCD screen. Ever.

That after checking the LCD for flashing highilghts. Are you familiar with the flashing highlight warnings on the image as viewed on the LCD?

I use the RGR histogram all the time and with those REDs, would certainly advise the same with this bird.

[Nancy Bell]

Congrats on getting a photo of this bird. That gorge down at Angel Paz's place is deadly dark. Were you able to get any photos of Maria and any of the other ant pittas?

[Nate Chappell]

Nice job, I know how tough it is to get this species out in the open.