Flame-faced Tanager

Gallery: AvianPosted February 14, 2010189 views16 comments

Here's another image from our recent Ecuador trip. I think this is my favorite species of Ecuadorian tanager, a stunning bird imo. This was taken at Sachatamia Lodge where he was coming in to the banana feeders. It's about 60% of FF.

MkIII 500F4 1.4X 1/250 F8 iso 500, evaluative metering -0.3, 580ex at -1.3, Gitzo tripod

Comments

16 comments

Comment posted by Ed Dubois on February 14, 2010 at 2:43 PM

Another handsome bird. Well handled Nate.

Registered on February 22, 2005, 129 Posts, 4739 Comments

Comment posted by Monica Siri on February 14, 2010 at 3:29 PM

Nate,
sharp detail, nice head turn, rich colors and great background. Superb shot!

Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments

Comment posted by Clayton Musgrove on February 14, 2010 at 3:36 PM

I realy like this shot Nate. Great comp and colors in the bird. Very nice creamy background.
Clayton

Registered on February 6, 2010, 55 Posts, 235 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on February 14, 2010 at 3:59 PM

I can see why they called it "flame-faced"! What awesome coloring it has. I like the comp, the background and the pose of the bird. Nice details & sharpness too.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Saunders on February 14, 2010 at 5:42 PM

Another boring bird eh Nate

Nicely handled exposure and a great mossy perch

Registered on February 6, 2008, 321 Posts, 3035 Comments

Comment posted by Bryan Hix on February 14, 2010 at 6:15 PM

The head colors really light up. FF looks very natural and I like the comp.

Registered on June 13, 2008, 117 Posts, 755 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Gilham on February 14, 2010 at 7:23 PM

Great capture Nate, a beautiful bird and you captured it well.

Registered on September 20, 2009, 77 Posts, 489 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on February 14, 2010 at 9:13 PM

Pretty Bird. I like the composition on this. Nice work with the flash, although overall it feels like it is a bit underexposed. A tiny bit of dodging around the eye might make it stand out even more. Thanks for sharing this species with us.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on February 14, 2010 at 9:22 PM

Thanks for your comments everyone!

Keith, I actually had to lower the exposure and do a bit of recovery on this in Adobe Camera Raw to keep the orange face colors from being blown, a tough combo when combined with the blacks so it's a good call to try and bring out some more detail on the blacks in the face, thanks.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Graham Brown on February 15, 2010 at 6:01 AM

Certainly a lovely colourful looking bird. I like the composition, detail and habitat background.Graham

Registered on November 20, 2007, 275 Posts, 1365 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on February 15, 2010 at 6:27 AM

Great bird Nate - the glowing orange and detail in the large version are superb. Like your comp also

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on February 15, 2010 at 9:02 AM

Another unusual, colorful bird shown in a great pose and perfect perch, Nate. I just read your comment re: detail in the blacks. Sounds difficult. I found lately that, for really tough jobs, retreating first to the vendor's software rather than proceeding to CS4, etc. immediately, gives me a better starting image quality for CS4 etc., especially in global exposure adjustment. I recall that an assessment on our forum mentioned strengths of vendor software because they know their own image quality aspects so well.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by David Sparks on February 15, 2010 at 10:32 AM

Nate:
What an appropriate name for the bird. Set my screen on fire. Colors and detail are terrific.

Registered on May 26, 2007, 290 Posts, 4270 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on February 15, 2010 at 2:58 PM

Another beauty Nate! It certainly does looks like he would little tricky to expose. Nice Work!!!

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by Simon Bennett on February 15, 2010 at 4:08 PM

Nice head-turn, beautiful bird. Like the background too.

Registered on February 4, 2007, 350 Posts, 4614 Comments

Comment posted by Satie Sharma on February 18, 2010 at 12:55 PM

Great looking bird, Nate. I like the detail, setting and techs too.

Registered on November 11, 2003, 189 Posts, 5335 Comments