Story of the Image
Of all countries in South America, Brazil is the largest and the most ecologically diverse. The total landmass constitutes a little under 50% of the entire continent which explains the vast diversity of birdlife in general!
During one of my trips to the Pantanal Wetlands in 2017, I came across a big group of Hyacinth Macaws that were feeding on palm fruits. This was an excellent opportunity to capture them at eye level.
Location
I photographed this image in the Northern Pantanal area near a small city called Campo Grande. While Pantanal, in general, is known for its jaguars and other big mammals, very few people know that it is also a birding haven. The Pantanal (Portuguese pronunciation: [pɐ̃taˈnaw]) is a natural region encompassing the world’s largest tropical wetland area, and the world’s largest flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and portions of Bolivia and Paraguay. It sprawls over an area estimated at between 140,000 and 195,000 square kilometers (54,000 and 75,000 sq mi). Various subregional ecosystems exist, each with distinct hydrological, geological and ecological characteristics; up to 12 of them have been defined.
Gear/Preparing The Scene
With large birds at a close distance, I usually prefer to work with shorter lenses, and I did the same in this instance. I used my Canon 300mm f/4 lens to get a close shot of the birds to ensure more depth of field.
Habitat loss and the trapping of wild birds for the pet trade have taken a heavy toll on their population in the wild
Composing The Shot
One of the biggest challenges was to get as many macaws as possible in a single frame. To do that, I had to ensure that they were still long enough to not cut off their tails or heads in any of the images. After 100 odd shots, I realized that more than 60% of them had this problem. The rest were not sharp enough, or the birds were not positioned optimally to make a pleasing image.
Now all I had to do was to wait and let the birds do their thing! After about 10 minutes, the birds were very comfortable with my presence and fed for a while. This allowed them to be still for long enough to get shots of all four birds facing me.
Post Processing
Initial camera raw edits:
Step 1: I selected the “daylight” option as my White Balance setting since it gave me the most natural colors of the birds and habitat. Most other White Balance settings were either too yellow or blue. The remaining settings are as per the image below:
Step 2: The color mixer palette is one of the most important steps in my photo editing. The way a camera reads colors and exposure is different from how a human brain reads them. Based on the White Balance we choose, blues could either slide towards a magenta or green tone. This is why it is essential to fix colors at this stage of post-processing.
Once I corrected the most apparent settings on camera raw, I opened the file in Photoshop.
The next step was to add a new layer to edit the background. To make the perfect selection, I used the option Select > Subject.
While this does a decent job, you will notice that the selection is not clean, and many areas need work. Use the Quick Selection tool from the tool dashboard and select the “Select and Mask” option to open the properties page.
Here it is easy to notice the missed areas on the image. I must use the Refine Edge brush tool and feather the edges at the highest opacity. This approach is how I achieve the perfect selection of my subject.
Once that is done, I create a duplicate layer to work on the background. I inverse the selection and brush the background with a green brush at 50% opacity and 0 hardness. Just by doing this, I will achieve 90% of our final image.
In the next few steps, we will get the image closer to how I perceived the image while shooting in the field. As a trained full-time bird photographer, my brain is wired to imagine the image even before I shoot it, and I carry the blueprint of how I would like it in the final edit once I see it on the camera screen.
The brightness and contrast palette gives my image the depth I look for in all my images.
The next step is to add more saturation as the greens and blues appear a bit “muted.” I selected blue from the dropdown and added 9 points to give it extra depth. Similarly, I also added 7 points of greens for the extra rainforest effect!
The next step was to resize the image for posting on social media platforms. For a vertical image like this, I usually go for 1800 pixels on the longer side, which here is vertical.
Once resized, the image is ready to be sharpened. Using Photoshop’s native Sharpening tool, I added 107 points. The correct sharpness depends on the user as there is no defined way to choose an ideal number.
My image is almost ready. All that is left now is to save it in the right profile.
For web prints, I use sRGB. For regular prints, I use Adobe RGB.
The final step is to save it as a jpeg at the highest resolution, as shown below:
About The Bird
Hyacinth Macaw is the largest macaw species that stands out for its vibrant plumage. They travel together in small flocks of one to eight pairs. A jovial bird when provoked can screech loudly and circle overhead with its tails streaming. They can be seen gathering around piles of clay known as macaw licks. They can fly at a great speed and aid in seed dispersion that replenishes the forest. Unfortunately, their populations are endangered due to the illegal pet trade and habitat loss.
