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Thread: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

  1. #1

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    Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Northern Flicker   c&c welcome

  2. #2

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Hi.
    The white seems to be too toughly.To play with the complementary colours could be a solution.

    Northern Flicker   c&c welcome

  3. #3
    RockNGoalStar's Avatar
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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    LOL what planet do you live on Radu?! Why would you not just put a sky blue colour in there?!

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    Willie or Jiro is fine by me.

    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    James, what's the actual color of the bird when you shot this? Just curious.

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Jiro, here is another pic of one from Wikipedia Commons.
    Northern Flicker   c&c welcome

    We always called the "yellow shafted flickers" and west of the Great Plains they are "red shafted flickers", I had no idea they had any other name. Anyway, my comment: I always just keep the shutter clicking and wait for an interesting pose, your pose is sort of like a bug. I will have at least thirty shots, and maybe one keeper in a situation like this

    This picture from Wikipedia? The guy must have sat there with his camera shooting, and he caught the one part of a second where the bird broke his tree hugging pose and showed the beautiful underparts. Probably just before it took off to fly. Now this was part persistence and part luck. I have one of an eagle the instant it took off, but it flew the other way :·(. The photographer didn't wait and push the shutter when he saw this happen, unless he has the reflexes of an NHL goalie.

    The other thing is that the sky is a very difficult background to shoot against. And, I have no doubt that the guy was using a very fast, high quality lens, in the thousands of dollars. You can tell that the aperture is wide open by that beautiful bokeh. That part is going to be hard to replicate.

    Someone here told me that bird shots are very low percentage, and I didn't believe him at the time, but a lot has to fall into place, and only some of it is in your control.
    Last edited by tameigh; 23rd March 2011 at 01:04 PM.

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Quote Originally Posted by RockNGoalStar View Post
    LOL what planethingt do you live on Radu?! Why would you not just put a sky blue colour in there?!
    As You could see without help I told about colours neither about one colour nor about sky colour,is only a coloured background example versus white in this particular case.You did not understand anything.
    Last edited by Radu Dinu Cordeanu; 23rd March 2011 at 03:59 PM.

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    James, as you were only able to capture a partial view of this bird I would be tempted to try a different crop to remove some of the tree which would concentrate more on the bird.

    Possibly try a 4 x 5 ratio portrait format somewhat similar to Tim's sample image.

  8. #8
    RockNGoalStar's Avatar
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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Quote Originally Posted by Radu Dinu Cordeanu View Post
    As You could see without help I told about colours neither about one colour nor about sky colour,is only a coloured background example versus white in this particular case.You did not understand anything.
    Yes point taken! I was only joking about you being from a different planet anyways

  9. #9

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Heres a better picture of the Northern Flicker .According to Readers Digest their colors and names change slightly with region located.Northern Flicker   c&c welcome

  10. #10

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    That is a ton better.

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Thanks for your input Radu, the white out sky does kill the image .I"ll pl;ay with some colors...when I"m not shooting , thanks all .

  12. #12
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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Image two is much better. The low angle of image one is a bit of a problem for me as it is an unattractive angle to see the bird fully. In both images the bird is backlit leading to problems with the background brightness and colour rendition on the bird as it is in shadow. You have no control over where these birds land, your only option is to restrict shooting to situations where the light is behind you or the light is very diffuse and not so unidirectional . Unfortunately that limits the world to about less than 180 degrees field of view; sometimes you have to accept the harshness of nature

    I like the composition of image two.

  13. #13

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    James,
    I tried to increase the range of tone, minor sharpening and changed the WB. I am doing this to learn, not to criticize, BTW.

    Northern Flicker   c&c welcome

    Now that I see it on the screen, it looks too bright. :S Maybe somebody else knows more... just maybe..

    Was the sun coming from behind the bird?
    Last edited by tameigh; 24th March 2011 at 09:21 PM.

  14. #14

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Sun was behind me on both shots . I personally like image 1 thats close to what it looked like when I took shot. when studying or voyeuring nature we as observers must be happy with what nature offers. ( if that makes sense) Tim what you did to the image make
    s his markings more clear , but that bird resembles my picture more. I only offer this information cause I too am just learning . Come to think of it I had circled around for image two and sun was to my left shinig into face of bird .By the way Tim have you seen that big pileated woodpecker(that you posted a while back) anymore?that was a great shot.

  15. #15

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    I saw the pilliated woodpecker today. They are pretty common around here. I see what you say. I think my version is too bright, but you can get more depth of tone out of the image without destroying the colors. I wasn't able to do it though.

  16. #16

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    Re: Northern Flicker c&c welcome

    Ive seen one pileated woodpecker around here but he"s very shy of people, I usually see him from 50 or 60 ft. he is 17 or 18 inches tall. the flicker I found their hole about 45 ft. up a tree,they are about 10 or 12 inches tall. They are very shy too.

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