Pririt Batis

[Piet]

My last session for 2010. The Pririt Batis is a very small bird, but the female was very cheeky at the nest.

C&C are welcome.

Piet

[wilgk]

They are all stunningly clear and a pleasure to view - I admire how well you have captured the character of such a small creature.

[Diane Darlow]

Good composition, interest and great depth of field. I wouldn't do a thing other than brag!!

[Camellia]

Piet

These are great! You should be very pleased. Can you tell us a bit about your setup please?

R

[Dave Humphries]

Great shots Piet,

Well done,

[jeeperman]

I can say nothing but what has been said. Very very nice.

[Peter Ryan]

Beautiful work Piet.

[ScoutR]

Amazing - I second the request for setup info. Nice work

Wendy

[Klickit]

What a stunning set! So sharp and clear and beautiful wee birds too.

[rob marshall]

Excellent shots. The colours and exposure look spot on, to me. I don't have the patience for this sort of photography.

[Sahil]

WOW! Thats one awesome shot, Piet.
So clear & well composed.

[Piet]

Hi Everone,

Thanks for all the compliments

My setup and workflow in short: I work from a hide and always use flash, sometimes with ambient light and sometimes only flash. In this case only flash. See the attachment, although this was with a session with rollers <https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/forums/thread6610>

A steady tripod is absolute necessary and also a cable release. I don't touch the camera when it is been triggered. My equipment is a 12mp aps-c format camera with a 200-400mm lens. I shoot uniWB with a neutral color profile.

With pp curves and levels are used for a pleasing contras and brightness, dust spot are removed and brightness is further adjust locally where necessary with color control points. Sharpening is done at low levels with high pass/edge sharpening and usm. O yes, I don't pump up the ISO and use an aperture at the diffraction limit of f8 - f11. Shutter speed up to 1/250 is used, depending on the use of ambient light.

Depth of view is limited at these magnifications (macro distances - 2m at up to 380mm) as can be seen on the first photo where the left leg is out of focus. Even the tail is not sharp but it did improved with aggresive local sharpening. Smaller apertures wouild be prefered, but one is running into diffraction and the effective flash distances are also shortened.

The most important thing is patience. One has to be prepared to sit in a hide all day at tempertures of 34C in the shadows. As some one asked me once " where is a bird's @sshole? - Behind the camera on the chair!"

I hope this gives an indication of how I shoot birds.

Thanks for viewing this beautifull little bird.

Piet

[Piet]

I have edited my posts to make the images full size for easier viewing.

Piet

[DTruex]

STUNNING! That is all.

[tihsgod]

What to say... those are great!

[RogerCook]

Wow thanks for showing the photo of your set up I want my photos to turn out like this but now I can see a lot of equipment is involved. I need to study flash photography more.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Piet, some of the best bird closeups I have had the pleasure to view.

[wlou]

Magnifique! I love the sharpness, one can see every details. I was waiting to see your set-up and I must say I admire you creativity. What an installation you have...