Eastern Kingbird guarding nest.

[Daniel Cadieux]

OK, the nest is not visible, but it is just out of sight below the frame.

With the combination of the bird in the shade and the background being sunlit I needed lots of flash to lighten the subject - not just "fill-flash". So, exposing for the background and using flash to light the kingbird was the way to go. Had I exposed for the kingbird itself (without using flash), the background would have been blown and colourless...something to keep in mind if you ever encounter similar situations.

P.S. I wish this guy or gal would perch on TOP of the sumac's flower (it extends well past the frame, and points straight up), but otherwise this is the only "clear" spot for it to land onto...

Canon 7D + 100-400L @400mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/500s., f/7.1, ISO 800, 580 EX II flash @ +0.7 FEC, handhel, FF.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Daniel,
If this is a popular landing spot , try to cover the perch to coach the bird onto the sumac. This is a beautiful shot. You observed the lighting situation and adjusted accordingly. it was a wise choice and a great execution. Well done. Many would not have recognized the lighting problems and would have come away with poor images.

[Dave Leroy]

Nice clean bg, slight head turn for eye contact and a bit of colour makes for a very nice photo.

Thanks for explanation on the flash and good suggestion by Joe about getting the preferred perch.

I am not sure what you would cover the perch with. A bit of tinfoil perhaps, get the shot and then remove it??

Dave

[Doug Brown]

I like the puffy feathers and the excellent sharpness. Good explanation of your thought process behind the exposure. I rarely use flash (the exception being Costa Rica), but as you point out a balanced exposure using flash to light the subject is the way to go when you encounter lighting like this.

[Stu Bowie]

I like the inquisitive head turn, as if he's listening to you. Excellent exposure on your side, and thanks for sharing your technique - great work.

[Alan Murphy]

Wonderful flash work. With the ambient light being warm and the light rom the flash being cool, I would select the perch and bird and warm them up a bit to match the BG.

[gail bisson]

Very nice Daniel and thank you for you flash lesson. Another thing learnedI love his puffy feathers. Do you have a shot where the whole flower is included? I think that would be lovely,
Gail

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Daniel, excellent flash work, details, subject placement and BG. Good thinking on your part. Well done as always.

[Bob Miller]

Love the fuzzy feathers! Can you lighten up the face and beak just a bit?

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Daniel I love the feel of this image. I like the slight fluff and the perch alot as well as the great bg. Nice light too.

[Randy Stout]

Daniel:

Lots of neat stuff, good discussion of your lighting.

Background is nice, like the sumac showing on right.
I do agree with Bob about dodging the face a bit. I noticed this at work, but wanted to check on my better monitor to be sure, and am convinced that a little dodging will open up the face and eye nicely.

Cheers

Randy

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Superb work with the flash and expertly composed.
Your IQ is always top notch. I would love to learn your work flow, as I seem to have a hard time conveying the sharpness and details from the raw into the final output.
Great suggestion from Alan about warming up the bird and perch a bit.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey guys, thanks a bunch for the comments and suggestions!

Normally I wouldn't mind covering the branch to force the subject onto the flowering part, but since there is an active nest a mere two feet below I'll hold off until later

Sidharth, thanks for the compliment! Many variables contribute to each image, but a few points to consider are that I use only the critically sharp images to start off with, and I don't like cropping much at all (I'm only happy if at least 3/4 of the original image remains). For sharpening I use Lightroom to convert from raw to tif and use the default output sharpening. In PS most of my images are sharpened with a Radius of 1.3 and Threshold of 0...with the Amount varying between 100-200. Once resized I sharpen again (same settings, with the Amount being from 20-50.)

Hope this helps, but again, each image is evaluated on its' own merit depending on different factors (e.g. head portrait need different sharpening than small-in-frame subjects)

[Nico Steenberg]

Great detail and flash work here. Exposure is nailed and the bg is a killer. A super IMG !

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Sidharth, thanks for the compliment! Many variables contribute to each image, but a few points to consider are that I use only the critically sharp images to start off with, and I don't like cropping much at all (I'm only happy if at least 3/4 of the original image remains). For sharpening I use Lightroom to convert from raw to tif and use the default output sharpening. In PS most of my images are sharpened with a Radius of 1.3 and Threshold of 0...with the Amount varying between 100-200. Once resized I sharpen again (same settings, with the Amount being from 20-50.)

Hope this helps, but again, each image is evaluated on its' own merit depending on different factors (e.g. head portrait need different sharpening than small-in-frame subjects)

Hey Daniel, thanks so much for generously sharing your workflow. I will be trying your tips today.
With my current gear, I am very blown away with the sharpness in RAW files, but this gets somewhat lost by the time I create the output jpeg.
In comparing with your workflow, I realized I am possibly not sharpening enough.
I used DPP to convert to tiff using the default sharpness (3)
I then PS smart sharpen the tiff with radius 0.8, maximum of 80 and simply save for web. I never sharpened after resizing. Will keep you posted. Thanks again.
Let me know if you're ever in the Austin area - I owe you drinks :)