by Howard Cheek
The birds are having a hot time of it today, over 100 degrees.. You have to stay cool 'under the canopy', and this Painted Bunting is the coolest
F/7.1, 1/320th, ISO 640, 5DM2, 300mm f/2.8 + 2x ext @ 10:06am within the full shade of a myrtle tree.
Footnote: I remember seeing faint flickering light from below, across the bird. Our pond with waterfall caused this action.
Comments
14 commentsNicely taken. I like how will your exposure brought out the colors in the bird considering it was in the shadows, and no flash used.
Impressive! Thanks for sharing.
Howard,
This is remarkably colourful, I am amazes that the overexposure has worked so well. How did you tame the BG?
Wow, that's a real beauty, Howard. Excellent colors in the subject and bg. Nice perch and pose. Sweet.
"I am amazed that the overexposure has worked so well. How did you tame the BG?"
Ken: I under-exposed the bird, with my eye on keeping the bright BG in line. Then I brought up the bird selectively. A slight warming of colors as well. The catchlight's a bit of reflected light from nearby, source unknown.. This is the original, as shot using center-weighted metering. And I was fairly close..
Beautiful shot, Howard.
I'm struggling with the explanation of the catch light, however. For that strong of a point source light to be coming off of the lens as a reflection and not be showing signs of lens flair doesn't make sense to me. Might there be some other reflective object near by that is bouncing light back at the Bunting?
The new explanation makes much more sense to me, Howard. Very fortunate fill light. TFS.
"For that strong of a point source light to be coming off of the lens as a reflection and not be showing signs of lens flair doesn't make sense to me. Might there be some other reflective object near by that is bouncing light back at the Bunting?"
It might be the small pond, it's about 10 feet away from the perch tree Neil. I noticed some light across the face/cheek that seems to come from below. Or the tree's in front of our house.. there's a large picture window, & two small bedroom windows that face the front also.. So yes, it may not be the lens. I'll change the note
Very nice colors without oversaturation. I think you handled this difficult light situation quite well.
And we whine when it hits the 80's! Great pose, Howard and I really like the "underglow" on the breast and the bit of spotlight on the face. Sweet image.
This is a fine look at this Bunting, Howard. Based on the comparison, you've done an excellent job in post processing with the bird's colors showing well.
Howard, thanks for posting the original image. I love how the final image turned out, but more than that, I love to see how guys that have been at this while do things. For those of us who are new to nature/avian photography (or just plain photography for that matter) it helps to understand how the final image came to be.
Maybe a forum can be started that is specifically for before and after images?
Thanks again.
Beautiful shot Howard, I would have thought the catch light was added until I read the comments, but I do also see the effect of the reflected light on the plumage. Whatever the causes the end result is lovely.
Nice job of handling a busy BG Howard and coming out of it with a very nice image. Also, nice work with the processing Howard.
Love the muted background here Howard. Beautiful shot! Ray
Hi Howard
Light and color to die
for...... Congrats on the well deserved WP
Albert Darmo
Canada