Crested Caracara in flight

[Dan Brown]

Another image from Jim Neigers Flight School. I quick masked out a pipe gate in the BG on this one. PP'ed with CS3, sharpened with Nik Sharpener Pro.


NIKON D200
Shutter speed: 1/1600 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 400
Lens: VR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D
Focal length: 400mm

[John Blumenkamp]

Beautiful capture Dan... fantastic light, wing position and detail. Can't really find anything to improve upon on this one.

[bill kominsky]

Agree with all of the above here Dan and more, beautifully done.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I agree with the fantastic light, wing position and detail. The bird itself itself is excellent. Two problems do come to mind. One is that the bird is basically in the center of the frame. I think compositionally speaking it might be better on the left, and I'm sure you've heard the old "needs space to fly into", but I think it is also because the center is less interesting, in that the viewer just gets hung up there and there is no dynamic aspect to the image. I also think the background to be troubling: there are blotchy areas on the left as well as areas completely out of focus, and black contrasted with less out of focus on the right. Either of these would be OK as a complete background, I suppose, but both seem not quite right. I guess I want a more consistent background? I'm thinking it might be better to blur the whole background in PS. ~Bill

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Hi Dan

I really like this image but I find the dark blob inside the red ''circle'' a bit distracting, not because is dark, but because the noise there is very visible.

Other than that, I find the flying pose, eye contact and details great.

[denise ippolito]

Dan, This is a great shot of a Crested Caracara in flight! Details are great -well done!!

[Ramon M. Casares]

I love the pose and detail althogh a bit less contrast might help a bit, the BG looks a bit funny and agree about leaving more space in the right would´ve helped too. Congratulaitons, this is noe of the ost beautifull Caracaras specimens I´ve seen, here in Argentia the adults are a bit more brownish.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Very cool wing position and eye contact. Adding to the other comments, I would try to get more details in the shadows.

[Mark Schmitt]

All of the above comments well taken. The bird is in good resolution with nice detailand tonal values. It looks to me as though there was some selective "bluring of the darker areas. It just seems un-natural that if all of the BG is in the same plane that some of it would be blured more than others. There is just something about the dark areas that my brain just registeres as being incongruent with the rest of the BG. IMHO. Bird is great ;-)

[Juan Aragonés]

Dan the action and pose of the bird are excelent but the PP job in the BG is not helping a lot. It is very obvious in several parts of the images, mostly on the left and in the dark area under the bird breast. The caracara is fantastic but I can´t take my eyes out of that areas.

[Doug Brown]

It does need some fine-tuning in the PP department, but the bird itself looks very good. Great wing position, eye contact, and dangling talons. I agree with Axel about wanting to see a little more detail in the darks.

[Dan Brown]

Thanks to all for the comments. Juan, in my repost I attempted to fix the "blob" that you circled. Boy, I missed that in the original post!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

See what a big difference!?

Great job.

[susanschermer]

Beautiful capture, Dan. Jim's workshop is worthwhile. Really sharp image of the caracara. I would even try getting rid of all the black on the right and making the whole BG green. I think you have enough room on the right for the bird to stay centered like it is. Congratulations.