The Handsome Male Kestrel

[Kiran Poonacha]

Made this Image Just before sunrise on a winter morning. @ 1/50, F 5.6, ISO 800. Never knew the Male as so colourful till I saw one of them in my veiwfinder, always thought the female was more appealing with so many bars on her ( http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=41194&highlight=kestrel ) the pink and orange on him make him happening with the ladies. These beauties visit us between October - March. wish I had more light to show more colours.

sorry forgot to Add:

Canon 40D + 500mm + 1.4TC

[Harshad Barve]

beautiful bird, nice BG, HA, and sharpness, loved it
May be slight increase in saturation , not sure , u know my PP skils
TFS

[Erich Stevens]

Kiran,

Love the over the shoulder eye contact, as if he's saying "Yyyyyes?" Great work!

[Mital Patel]

absolute fantastic work kiran bhai.
i wish for some cloning work on Right top as the dark muddy patches having pixel stretch visible which distracts at some level.

[Mike Lentz]

Nice soft light and pose. I might consider taking a small amount off the bottom.

[Ken Watkins]

That is a beautiful bird, not to sure about some of the comments above, but I agree with Mike about taking more of the bottom. This would make it look like the clipped tail was deliberate.

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful shot. I like it exactly as presented. Great light and sharpness. I like the head turn.

Markus

[Brian Barcelos]

Kiran, this is a gorgeous bird and I agree the male is prettier in this species, same with our Kestrels. Awesome job with such a low shutter speed. You rendered the colors beautifully.Sharpness and BG also great! I would't take from the bottom but I might add slightly to the right. Congrats

Brian

[Subharghya]

Such a Beautiful Male he is !! ... You have a done a Gr8 Job .. BTW It's Gr8 to see you guys here :D

[Rohan Kamath]

excellent sharpness and clarity here...agree on the cropping off from the bottom...i especially loved the HA and the look in the eye...

[DarrenMcKenna]

Gorgeous bird, excellent image.






darrenmckenna.com (http://www.darrenmckenna.com/)

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Kiran, excellent detail and colours captured in this, and I like the light too. This is sharp, and what a killer BG. What is the perch.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Thank you all dear people for your encourageing words and suggestions, I have made changes as you all suggested i.e cropped of the bottom a bit, Added some space on the right, cloned the patch and increased the satuaration., kindly let me know what you feel

@ stuart: The perch is a dried stem of a water plant. I dont know the name.

Thanks again,

Kiran.

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent shot Kiran, all the points covered and repost is improvement!

[Dr.Pranay Rao Juvvadi]

I prefer the original. You did great with the low shuter speed.

[Simon Bennett]

Handsome bird indeed, and a handsome capture of it.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I think your repost speaks volumes my friend! I love it. I so wish you could capture this in sweet light! That would make a world of difference. I still very much love it as is. Thanks for sharing Kiran Bhai! :)

[Harshad Barve]

My vote for repost
TFS

[Charlie VanTassel]

Quite nice, and the repost fixed my suggestions. I wondered a little about the perch too.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Great looking bird. Thanks for sharing it here.
The uniform BG makes this one for me. The dorsal view is great as well. I see some noise on the bird, is this a big crop? just curious.

[Dave Barnes]

This is a nice looking bird and you have captured the colour and feather detail very well. Personally I am not mad about the perch, it makes him look a bit like toffee-apple. I would have prefered a slightly more side on view if possible. You have goog eye contact and a nice BG.
Still an image that I would like to have in my gallery.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Thank you all Dear Bird lovers for your kind words,



Great looking bird. Thanks for sharing it here.
The uniform BG makes this one for me. The dorsal view is great as well. I see some noise on the bird, is this a big crop? just curious.

yes Juan, the 40D is pretty noisy at ISO 800. Its about 30% crop.

Thanks Again,

Kiran.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Is your 40D still noisy at ISO800 when you shoot to the right Kiran Bhai?

[Kiran Poonacha]

Is your 40D still noisy at ISO800 when you shoot to the right Kiran Bhai?

Bhai.. I did not get what you meant:confused:

[Kiran Poonacha]

I got it.. Bhai... I cleaned noise on the right and let the noise be on the bird.

[sree.kumar.h]

Like your re-post over the original. The perch suites the angle of the shot. Get the feeling that it's hiding something from you :)