Scarlet Tananger

[Dan Behm]

I had a great encounter this past spring with this scarlet tanager, I see these birds often but typically higher in the tree canopy. This bird was found in the Cuyahoga Valley Park system And an area I spend allot of time in during migration and throughout the year, this particular bird was found in an area I never had gone to before but will be sure to check out again next spring!

Raw processed from DPP in to CS4 with some Nik adj| Sharpening, color,levels and curves adjustments as well as highlight recovery on some of the reds!

I found these birds to be exposure nightmares and them reds very challenging, hopefully I got it rite!

All comments and critiques welcome and encouraged!



1D4| 600 f/4|Iso 400| F/8 |1/400th |Manual mode| Flash did not fire| Summit County CVNP

Thanks for looking!!! Dan

[Daniel Cadieux]

Wow fantastic colours, comp, perch, BG. A great opportunity presented itself for you here!! The details in the face area look a bit odd, a bit smoothed out and "cartoonish" (for a lack of a better term)...perhaps a processing effect. Awesome image though, very appealing.

[Stu Bowie]

Hey Dan, excellent work on both the reds and blacks, especially the wing. This guy really pops from the frame. Im not sure what Dan C is seeing on the face area, but the area just above the wing looks a bit too smooth. I do like the pose, together with the light and overall setting. Maybe moving him back to the right a touch will work. Thanks for sharing this beauty Dan, and look forward to more.

[Dan Behm]

Dan and Stuart, there is very lil done to this image overall in processing really, So I am not sure what it is your seeing that looks cartoonish in the face, The flatness on his back is the feathers as they looked in the original. Perhaps I will add the image original for comparison. I do have my Contrast set at -2 in camera as well as sharpening at +3.. It was imaged in Auto wb and Standard.

Here is the original from the camera, converted only from Raw to Jpeg.



Dan

[Daniel Cadieux]

Maybe "cartoonish" was not the correct term to use...but the plumage looks rather smooth in some areas, not lots of fine detail texture such as on the leaves at left. Perhaps a combination of fine feathers and light/shadow play from the light angle. Still a striking image - wish I had anything as beautiful as this from this species in my files!!

[Stu Bowie]

Dan, thanks for sharing your original. Maybe its because Im not familiar with this species. Would love to have one in my files though.

[Peter Dexter]

Excellent photo but I think he's sitting kind of low in the frame, at least for my taste.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent photo but I think he's sitting kind of low in the frame, at least for my taste.

Hi Peter, there is no questioning taste...but are you looking at the finalized image or the uncropped image posted on pane #4 ?

[Randy Stout]

Dan:

Lovely bird, BG and pose.

Sometimes I think the reds are tougher than the whites to handle. Nikons tend to be a little hot in the red channel which makes it even worse. Your Canon should help there.

I do wonder if some of the 'smoothness" might not be from small areas of blown reds, which were recovered but may still not show much detail.

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

I have had experince with this bird.
Handling the red is very tricky.
I have blown most of my images and it looks like you have hot areas in the red just as well.
Otherwise it still a very appealing image.

[Melissa Groo]

Stunning image, Dan. Wish I had a tanager this well. As for the smoothness, I have taken a photo or two of a scarlet tanager male before, and funny, it had the same kind of look to the red feathers looking smooth or detail less in a few parts, I think it may have something to do with the bird, but I am not sure. At any rate, this one is packed with details, sharpness, and all around awesome techs and comp. Love those details in the black. Just a breathtaking image, wish it were mine.

[Randy Stout]

Dan:

I took a minute to try and pull a bit more detail out of the smoother red areas on shoulder,back and head area. You can do a much better job on the raw file, but I think there is more in there. It may be too subtle to show well on the web.

Cheers

Randy

[Dan Behm]

Thank you everyone, I appreciate the comments and critiques, The bird gave me some real fits with exposure and I would agree it seems Reds are harder to handle than the whites. I hope to have another go with this bird in the spring if he returns to this same location, I would really like to do a lil better job with the reds. perhaps its the phase angle theory Roger talks about.

Randy your version looks to have a lil more detail and is in line with the version I have printed through Bay Photo.. It does appear my version presents here as the reds look a lil washed out or smoothed as mentioned. I may have another go with it in processing... Thanks again everyone!

Dan

[Don Lacy]

Hi Dan, Sorry I am late to comment but it appears that the red channel was blown during captured and the sensor did not record enough data in that channel for fine detail which is why you have that smooth look to the feathers. Just for comparison only on feather detail here is a Tanager image I took several years ago and I had real hard time in post processing to get it right in fact at the time I ended up processing the image twice in ACR once for the overall image and the second time just for getting the reds right I then combined both images in PS. I would say reds are harder to get right then any other color regardless of camera make.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Lots of good discussion above.

Really nice opportunity that you used very well. You nailed the head turn. Iq is very good. loved the BG. If me, I'd crop as follows. I prefer the balance this creates.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

wish you had not clipped that leaf tip at the bottom edge :-) with that exciting an opportunity, I can understand :-)

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent pose, HA, light a nice display of enviroment. attractive perch too

[Dan Behm]

Don,
I appreciate you postiing the image of yours as well for Illustrative purposes. The thing that gets me is I had time with this bird. He cooperated very well for me and I thought I was getting it rite in camera.

I do have my histogram setup so I can read the color channels separate at time of exposure, I remember looking and watching it as well as the LCD and trying to expose to the right at the time,My thinking at the time was I was not blowing that channel. also I have highlight priority set and was seeing no blinkies. However I agree the pics do look smooth and lack detail in that area. But when viewing the raw file and in particular the red channel on the pc I dont see where the red channels blown, maybe I am not understanding reading my histogram correctly? The only area I see may be hot is at the base of the neck,otherwise it seems to just lack detail.

Could it just be the light angle I was at? do you or anyone else happen to have a backside image and was you bird in sunlght or overcast conditions, it appears your image may have been overcast and also the bird is fluffed up somewhat which would add detail, The feathers on these seem a lil like a Cedar waxwing on the backside to me, would that make the feathers there appear different in sunlight versus blown....

I guess I just am not understanding where things are blown.Just lacking detail, But also am pretty new to allot of this and trying hard to understand and dont want to have this problem again. These reds are making me nuts...

I am not denying I may have screwed things up here, trying to better understand so I dont make this mistake again. whites are a snap compared to these reds ;)


Kaustubh,
Thank you for the comments. I like your crop as well, Its a different flavor and I do find it pleasing as well. The perch is not the best I agree. I framed the bird in camera at time of capture because the bottom portion of the perch was not very attractive with the ways the leaves were and other vegetation was creeping into the area as well, So I tried to frame as best as possible in how I thought I would crop it down from there at the time.

As mentioned this bird gave me many looks from this perch, I snapped several hundred frames... thats whats killing me now that I messed up this opportunity with these reds..

Thanks much to everyone for your help and nice comments, I appreciate it greatly, This was a learning curve for me no doubt... I am still learning and trying to get better!!!

Dan