Kestrel Takes Off

[Loi Nguyen]

Just got back from a grueling business trip in Europe. First thing I did was to take my dog out to visit the Kestrel. He rewarded me with this image.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/2500
f5.6
ISO 800
Evaluative Metering in AV mode, +1 1/3 EV
Tripod
The image seemed a bit dark, so I increased brightness by 05EV in DPP

Thank you for looking.

Loi

[Faraaz Abdool]

Lovely composition, Loi. I'm wondering how it may have looked without the perch coupled with a slight crop from the bottom. Good head on pose, although the eyes are so dark - it still works because we're seeing both eyes. So we know he's locked on to you!

[Karl Egressy]

The bird looks too smooth. Was it a big crop Loi?

[Fernando Cerra]

It still looks a bit dark to me, but nice capture !

[Loi Nguyen]

The bird looks too smooth. Was it a big crop Loi?

Yes, the image was cropped to 40% of W (60% discarded) and 40% of H approximately. Kestrel is small and he was perching on a high tree, so I moved back so that my shooting angle wasn't so steep.

I tried to bump up Exposure by 1/3 EV here, there are small blinkies around the edges of the bird, but it seems OK. Also tried to crop tighter and removed the lone perch.

[Karl Egressy]

The repost is a definite improvement, Loi.