take-off female kestrel

[annmpacheco]

Taken in Southern California last month with Dave S. and Gail B.. This is the female kestrel that has some feather edge damage on her right wing due to feather mites. I decreased exposure by .30, added black pts, saturation, sharpening, selective sharpening on head, toned down perch, toned down some areas on feet, removed some white wash, and NR...

1Dx
840mm
ISO 640
f 7.1
1/2000

[Randy Stout]

Ann:

Yes, the feathers aren't perfect, but the pose is pretty impressive, great gaze, like the vertical crop.

On my screen, I might go -.25 less on the exposure, but personal taste, and I suspect it was bright there! I am used to dull Michigan winters.

Cheers

Randy

[Isaac Grant]

Really nice Ann. Love those raised wings. Beautiful soft feather details as well. I'd be psyched to have a shot like this.

[Mike Poole]

You can't get the wings much higher than this Ann, lovely timing! A great stare from the bird, but the head looks a little softer than the body to me, either through missing critical focus, or movement.

Mike

[Bill Dix]

Great dynamic pose with the ultimate in upstretched wings, and nice eye contact. Exposure looks ok on my screen, for SoCal. I agree the head looks a bit softer than the wings.

[annmpacheco]

I agree, the head is not tack sharp, I tried to selectively sharpen but alas, this was my best, for now! Thanks all for your comments.

[David Salem]

What a great take off frame Ann. You have the reflexes of a cat! Not easy to time this shot and you caught her with a killer wings up pose.

Looks like this one was overexposed by a bit. Almost a stop if you already reduced it by a third.

Here is what I am seeing.

Adjusted blacks in levels by about 5 points to the right.
Reduced exposure by .5
Dodged the Rt side of the face at 15%
Burned the feet by 5%
Added 4 pnts of overall saturation
Selected only the head and added sharpening @.3 @ 80
Once I was done I looked at it again and reduced the exposure by another .10
I also increased only the blue channel for the sky but as you can see with this small JPG it started to posterize a bit.

I know I taught you to overexpose these guys by about a third for the overall scene but this one was a little more than that.

Remember that when something is overexposed lots of the natural colors and contrast are somewhat burned out so you need to reapply some more to liven up the image to its natural state. Oh and I reduced the height to 1300px fro the vertical as it was way to tall at 1800px, even for our 5K monitors. It should just fill the frame from top to bottom.

Well done and looking forward to more.

[Bill Dix]

This was a nice image to begin with; now a killer frame with the master's touch.

[gail bisson]

Wow! Killer frame and Dave just made this image sing.
Gail

[annmpacheco]

Wow, thats sure looks a ton better Dave! Handclaps and wingflaps for you! I really appreciate your time and your explanation, lots to learn here. I will go back to the drawing board... I knew the head was soft but i didnt know what to do about it amongst the other tweaks... It really looks wonderfully processed, what a difference. I agree with the vertical posts, I will try the 1300px... Wowsa!