Female with Snail

[Fabs Forns]

She took the offering and went to another tree to eat it. Snail Kite. I know some of you like more contrast, but I'm not fond of high contrast/much sharpening, I guess a matter of taste.

D300, 600/4 VR plus 1.4X
f/5.6, 1250, IS0 400

[john crookes]

Not a fan of high contrast or oversharpening either Fabs but in this case the pine appears sharper than the bird so I guess it would nead some to at least draw your eye away from the pine and on the subjet

John

[Fabs Forns]

John, than you for your input!

The bird's face is sharp. The wing has motion blur and no amount of sharpening is going to get rid of that. The tree was masked at the sharpening stage and I didn't see the need to blur it.
Will see what others what to say :)

Thanks again!

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Fab,

You did well with the exposure; I like the BG and green vegetation. I find the Kite soft, especially at 1/1200 sec and probably because of the panning and/or movement. I would also remove some of the noise in the BG.

Photographing from a boat using a 600 + 1.4X and probably using a tripod is not an easy task.

Hugs!

[Gus Cobos]

I like the unusual tip down flight angle, and the semi-blurred wings, the background and habitat is fine with me, but I see a little noise in the background...:D nice capture Fabs...:cool:

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Fab,


Photographing from a boat using a 600 + 1.4X and probably using a tripod is not an easy task.

Hugs!

No boat here, from firm land in Palm Beach.

Thanks, I didn't do any noise reduction, maybe I should have. I'm so spoiled with the D3, that I forget that step in in the D300 :eek:

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fabs, to be honest what I see from here is a bit of subject motion blur even in the face/eye. I still like it, but I wish the Kite was more frozen. I don't mind the low contrast here though as it gives a soft-light feel (but yes I usually prefer a bit more).

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very cool pose, light and setting. The contrast looks good but I might try to selectively sharpen the head. There is a bit noise in the yellow parts of the BG but hardly worth mentioning. I really want to see these kites someday. :)

[Doug Brown]

I love the composition here Fabs! I do think selective sharpening of the head is in order. BG looks fine on my monitor. I want to photograph these birds too. Let's plan a trip Axel!

[Alfred Forns]

These birds take a different look with different temp/intensity light. Sort of reminds me of the spoonbills very early in the morning.

I have some that look just like this one both from the D300 and D3 At first I though it had something to do with the particular camera but is not. Same bird just a few minutes later does look different. Feathers have a different look and feel. Will try to figure out next outing .... and btw the male is easier to reproduce.

I like the soft feel of this image and would process just like it is. Some images look good razor sharp and anything else would not do. If you try sharpening (heavy) this type will end up looking very strange. I feel it best to go with the flow. I like this image very much as presented !!!!

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Very lovely composition Fab. Has a very artistic look to it and to capture the female with the snail really puts it over the top. Big congrats !!!

[Dieter Schaefer]

Looks a bit too soft to me - might be better in the original size - the JPEG compression is certainly not helping here. Increased contrast just a tad and ran a noise filter on the background.

[Fabs Forns]

Very nice, Dieter, thanks! :)

[Mike Lentz]

There ya go showing us your human! ;)