Downy Woodpecker

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

A male downy woodpecker taken a couple of weeks ago. I picked up a used D5 at an end of year sale and wanted to test it out in low light on some avian subjects (having previously used one on mammals). Still getting to grips with editing the files, but I'm overall happy with this image. Taken in the backyard at a setup since not a lot else around recently. In post relatively minor edits, WB, NR at RAW and then again in PS, cropped to about 60% of FF.

Camera: Nikon D5
Lens: 500mm f/4 + 1.4 TC
Specs: 1/400 f/5.6 ISO 10,000

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[Aditya Sridhar]

Love the classic woodpecker pose. Great colors and IQ, especially considering the ISO - the D5 will certainly open up a world of possibilities. The perch is very nice and has a lot of texture. Initially, I thought the composition was too tight, particularly below the bird and on the LHS, but the more I look at the image as a whole, it's growing on me. Well done, Alex! Looking forward to seeing more with your new rig.

[arash_hazeghi]

sharp and clean woodie and the moss on the perch is pretty too. excellent IQ and processing for 10K ISO. I'd shave off from the URC

congrats for your new body, it handles low light much better than the D500 or the D850. The AF is better too.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Beautiful perch and Background.

Image is really nice for ISO 10000. May be its time to get a D5 for me as well. :-)

TFS

[William Dickson]

Looking real good...Lovely detail on both bird and perch. Good control of the blacks and whites. Lovely pose. BG fits nicely. Nice work...I like this one.

Will

[gail bisson]

This file looks superbly clean and free of noise at that ISO 10,000! Wow!
I think you are doing pretty darn good with the D5 and the processing!
Lovely BG and exposure perfect with good details in the blacks and whites.
Comp is OK but my preference would be to take some off the top and right.
Gail

[John Mack]

Looks great for that ISO. Really digging the lichen on that perch. Killer background as well.

[Dorian Anderson]

Incredible clarity and detail at that ISO. My DX2 can't do that. The bird, perch, and setting/BG are money. I would slide the bird up a bit if it were mine, but that would yield a more
traditional and better balanced - but less unique - frame. Exposure is perfect across the bird. Really nicely done.

[dankearl]

Iso10,000? wow. Looks great, a bit of detail loss obviously, but pretty nice.
D5's are going to be discounted, may be tempting.

[Alex Becker]

Thanks all, much appreciated. I can revisit the crop. I haven't really had any flight opportunities yet but looking forward to that soon. Best,