"Wheep"

[John Chardine]

That's the distinctive call of this beautiful New World flycatcher makes. The official name is the Great-crested Flycatcher. This one reacted in a very predictable way to its song being played back to it. In fact there were two males in the area and my iPod made three.

The light was harsh that day so we picked a tree that provided shade and placed the playback machine underneath. Trees were far in the BG and provided a nice OOF frame for the bird.

I cropped to 25% of original pixel count, removed a very small piece of foliage from the upper left, and sharpened.

All comments welcome!

Date: 21 May, 2011, 13:42h
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x @ 700 mm
Program: Manual
ISO 800, 1/400s, f/7.1
Exp. comp.: 0.0
Flash: off

[Dan Brown]

A great capture of a Great-crested, John! Smart technique also! I love Myiarchus flycatchers I might tone down the bright spot on the perch if it were mine. TFS!

[Roy Priest]

Very nice John. Like the detail and the "expression" on the bird's face.

[jack williamson]

Very nice image John. Sharpness and detail are right on. I really like the subtle colors of this bird.

Jack

[Troy Lim]

Great shot. Love the BG.
Looks like you could have lower your SS and stop down to take it another notch.

[John Chardine]

Good idea Troy. I would have maybe got the tip of the tail in focus with a smaller aperture. To be quite honest, at 700mm, I take all the shutter speed I can get, once I've stopped the lens down a little. You have reminded me though that I should experiment with smaller apertures and see how low I can go on the SS.

Thanks for everyone's comments. I'll look at toning down the lichen in the sun on the perch.

[Troy Lim]

Good idea Troy. I would have maybe got the tip of the tail in focus with a smaller aperture. To be quite honest, at 700mm, I take all the shutter speed I can get, once I've stopped the lens down a little. Youo have reminded me though that I should experiment with smaller apertures and see how low I can go on the SS.

Thanks for everyone's comments. I'll look at toning down the lichen in the sun on the perch.

I did not know how far you much time you had with this shot. I usually would try variation.
I agree with the SS @ 700mm but it seems like it was still. You can try it next time.

[John Chardine]

Not long- the guy was jumping around all over the place.

[Christopher Ciccone]

Just the thoughts of an avid amateur...
I think this is a brilliant photo - tack sharp where it needs to be, and in the post processing you have not fallen into the over-used ideal of pushing the contrast too much (something I personally fall prey to often) You really pulled out the tonality of the colors, which is complimented well by the background and the thought put into the set-up really paid off. Frankly I think the DOF is perfect - since most of the tail is obscured by the branch anyway, I feel that having the tip in sharp focus might have actually been a bit distracting.

[John Chardine]

Thank you for your thoughtful comments Christopher.

[Kerry Perkins]

Really nice John. Great little subject and well-captured. Love the nice colors and background.

[Diego Torrentes]

Hi John. What a nice bird, I like the sweet look, nice colours combination between the background and the bird and the good detail of the plumage. This picture could be perfect if the feathers of the tail were visible completly, but sometimes it's imposible to control all the details. Good picture.

[annmpacheco]

I really enjoy all of the details here, its swell. Do you have a preference and an explanation for your metering; spot, partial, full, etc, ...? Also, what focus choice do you like when shooting such a portrait shot? thanks, what a beautiful image.

[Linda Dulak]

John: What a sweet image of a bird I've been watching here all day. I tried calling with my iPod, but the two were more interested in hawking insects than coming to my calling.

I agree that the DOF is very good, sharp where it needs to be.

Linda

[John Chardine]

Thank you for all the comments!

Ann- Notice I used Manual exposure mode in this image. This is my usual mode. In Manual I may use the on-board camera meter to give me a rough starting point for the exposure. If I do this I use full evaluative metering available on the Canon, and meter on something lit like the subject but of neutral tonality (not too bright, not too dark). This is where you could use a grey card if you liked. Remember this is only a starting point from where I would adjust the exposure based on the look of the histogram, to expose the subject to the right without blowing the highlights. I suppose I could have used the spot meter on the breast of the bird as a starting point. In this particular case I had the exposure set from a previous and similarly-lit session, with another species of similar tonality. As the bird was jumping around a fair bit I used AI Servo to track the small movements of the bird and set the centre (best) point to focus on. Often I will set the AF-ON button to turn on the AF and set the shutter release just to run the meter. That way in AI Servo mode you can track the bird with the AF-ON button and then once released the camera behaves like One Shot, at which time you can recompose before finally releasing the shutter. Alternative you can move the focus point in the view finder but then you will get an inferior point and it takes extra time.

[annmpacheco]

Hi John, Thank you for all your information. I will save it and try to apply as I creep thru... I have some "worthwhile panamanian birds that need the BG "removed!" light is tough to come by in the jungle and with my only 100-400mmlens. Thanks also for the exposure related info, I will try out some of those recommendations. All so many things to be aware of and try my hand at... Thanks , I'll be back posting soon.