Elegant Trogon

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Seem to have lost some of the detail in the red feathers. Not sure why. Change the luminance a bit.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

Went to Madiera Canyon today just outside Green Valley, AZ.
Windy and cloudy so not many people around. Hiked up a trail toward the Lodge and there he was. Stayed about 10 minutes from branch to branch. At one time, about 5 feet over my head. Then off to some place else. What a great experience.
Canon 7D Markll, Sigma 150-600C, ISO 2500, 1/1000sec, f/8, tripod.
LR and PSCC. Cropped to make it vertical, erased a few twigs on the edges. Basic changes in LR.
LR and PSCC


(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)

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Excellent detail, Charlie and a nice pose and head turn. Kind of a crazy background, but for a bird like this, I’d take this any day. You could spend a bit more time taming it if you wanted to, but the bird certainly commands attention as posted. I’ve never had the privilege of seeing one, but the red looks just a bit too much to my eye.

These re gorgeous birds. The only one I’ve gotten was in the exactly the same place, and possibly even the same bird, who returns to the same extreme SE Arizona every spring. Did you find his/her nest hole in an old dead white tree ?
Nice pose from this one and fine colours.
Unfortunately a very messy BG that could not have been avoided.
Still, you could try to blur the BG now, or a much smaller apurture woulkd have blurred a bit.
Sandy

WHAT a cool looking bird! Jaw-dropping. I’m so glued to the beauty that I’m not even noticing the BG in particular. I see it likes to grip its perch owl style… 2 in front/2 in back. Mesmerizing photo.

Overly busy fore and background but a nice catch. The image looks way to light and contrast here (people set their monitors differently).
Blown red (highlights) is a common problem, accessing the red channel in your version photo shop is the answer, if not, lowering the overall image contrast will help greatly.

Thanks for all the info. After looking at it I had way over processed it. Too red and contrasty. I reprocessed it and did not mess with the colors. I think this is closer to the actual colors, at least on my monitor. See what you think. I think you were all being very nice. I think it looks too artificial. So hope this is better.

Much better, Charlie. We like to be nice on this site. Your new processing also helped tame the background quite a bit. A much improved image.

Hello, Charly, with such a subject who can complain :wink: … That said, you had to deal with quite some complicated surroundings and therefore I think your repost is much better, since the BG attracts less attention and the birds is still as stunning ! Cheers, Hans

I was about to comment on the excessive contrast in your original post when I saw the repost - good job. I like the pose quite a lot, especially the slight head turn. I think you can improve on the image a bit more by removing some of those small bright twigs, mostly on the right side. I find the healing brush in PSCC does a great job with that.

Thanks. However, I do appreciate constructive criticism. If that had been someone else?s photo, I would be less critical than on my own.