Smooth-billed Anis

Gallery: AvianPosted March 29, 201094 views6 comments

Hi all,

I love anis, both for their prehistoric (and somewhat demented, in my opinion) appearance, and their interesting behaviors. I captured these 2 here at Iguazu a couple weeks ago. They were quite active, and I was happy to get this shot off, because I only had a few seconds with both in the frame together. I do wish that the bird on the right would have dropped his tail, but then he might have lost his more alert pose.

On a side note, I tried a little re-sharpening for posting, but I still don't feel like I got it quite right.

Thanks for looking, comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated.

Canon T1i
Canon IS 100-400mm
ISO 400
1/250@f5.6

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Roy Bailey on March 29, 2010 at 2:34 PM

Your right they definately have a prehistoric look about them.Great looking birds and you have got them both in good poses. Background is also very nice and the foliage balances the picture.I would have another look at sharpening Matt, I am no expert here but have lately been applying some sharpening then reduceing image size then adding another round of sharpening and repeating process twice more till I get to final image size.Remember to apply noise reduction first if image is noisy or you will end up exagerating the noise each time you apply the sharpening process. Not sure if I have explained this well but nothing lost giving it a go.

Registered on November 16, 2008, 24 Posts, 486 Comments

Comment posted by Monica Siri on March 29, 2010 at 3:01 PM

Matt,
very interesting shot of these birds that I have never seen before. Great seeing both together like this. Very nice capture!

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

Comment posted by David E Lester on March 29, 2010 at 6:12 PM

Same here, I have never seen this type of bird, not only do you get great information in this forum, I get an education as well, nice photo, keep'um comm'in......

Registered on March 24, 2010, 155 Posts, 793 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on March 29, 2010 at 7:02 PM

Matt, I like the eye contact from both birds and your exposure looks good. They have incredibly interesting looking beaks. I agree with you that the sharpness could be better but even more I wish the tail weren't cut off. Still, you did well to get them both like this.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on March 29, 2010 at 9:21 PM

cool birds and cool poses, Matt. I do wish the tail of the second one wasn't cut off. As for sharpening, I prefer to do it all at the end, after I have resized, and I sharpen the bird (or bird and perch) only. Roy is right on about doing noise reduction first so you don't enhance the noise. In general, for a 1200 pixel web sized shot, I start with smart sharpening (applied as a layer on a smart object, so I can tweak it) at 200% and 0.2 radius, then sometimes have to reduce it.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on March 30, 2010 at 12:16 PM

Matt,

I would have been thrilled to get this close to Anis when I have visted countries that have them.

I like the alert poses, the eye contact, great view of the bills and the setting. I agree about the tail of the one ani being cut off, I sure wish it were there.

As for the sharpening, I agree it could use a touch more. Like Brian, sharpening is my last step, I selectively mask what ever I am going to sharpen (usually just the bird) then I use smart sharpening at between 85 - 90% with a radius of 0.2 pixels, then reduce it if needed.

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