Jon Rista
09-29-2012, 06:44 PM
This is my first time posting for critique here on BPN. I've read many pages on these forums, however only recently signed up. The image below is of a wild American Kestrel, perched on a branch of a long-dead tree in Cherry Creek State Park, Colorado. I'd seen this little guy hanging around for a while, however I was never able to capture a photo of it until recently (usually due to poor lighting conditions and my use of an EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L @ 400mm). Here are the statistics:
Exposure
1/800s @ f/8
ISO 160
EC -2/3
Camera
Canon 7D w/ 600mm lens
- EF 300mm f/2.8 L II IS (LensRentals.com rental)
- EF 2x TC III
Time and Location
9/1/2012 11:10 am
Cherry Creek State Park
- Just South of Cottonwood Creek Wetland area
Processing
Not much done in the way of processing. All done in Lightroom 4.1. Cropped a bit, and tweaked exposure, clarity, and vib/sat to bring out all the details. I may have overdone the EC in camera. I used -2/3rd stop, probably only needed -1/3rd stop, to preserve those white feathers on its breast. (He kept landing on branches with odd lighting and shading, so exposure was tricky.) I did a little bit of brush work on the eye to brighten it and bring out a little detail. The rest of the frame was clean, so there was no need to import into Photoshop for cloning/healing/CAF.
http://i.imgur.com/fBO7d.jpg
Exposure
1/800s @ f/8
ISO 160
EC -2/3
Camera
Canon 7D w/ 600mm lens
- EF 300mm f/2.8 L II IS (LensRentals.com rental)
- EF 2x TC III
Time and Location
9/1/2012 11:10 am
Cherry Creek State Park
- Just South of Cottonwood Creek Wetland area
Processing
Not much done in the way of processing. All done in Lightroom 4.1. Cropped a bit, and tweaked exposure, clarity, and vib/sat to bring out all the details. I may have overdone the EC in camera. I used -2/3rd stop, probably only needed -1/3rd stop, to preserve those white feathers on its breast. (He kept landing on branches with odd lighting and shading, so exposure was tricky.) I did a little bit of brush work on the eye to brighten it and bring out a little detail. The rest of the frame was clean, so there was no need to import into Photoshop for cloning/healing/CAF.
http://i.imgur.com/fBO7d.jpg