Common Kestrel

[RAM MALLYA]

Got this bird perching high on a cliff could not do much about the BG .



Camera Model Canon EOS-1D Mark II N
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/400
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF600mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
Focal Length 840.0mm
On Tripod

Regards
Ram Mallya
India

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice pose and look back, wish for a less busy BG and the OOF part of the perch is a bit distracting

[Bill Dix]

Good pose and colors. Tough little hawks to capture. I agree with Arash about the bg and perch.

[Don Nelson]

I agree with Arash.
You actually can do something with the background.... but can't fix the OOF perch end....
111880

How?
Extract the bird(and perch) with a mask
Extract the background with the invert of the bird mask
Content-aware fill the hole in the background
Repair the edges of the filled hole with spot healing brush
>>You may choose here to adjust the colors of the background prior to blur. I just used your existing colors.
Apply gaussian blur to taste to back ground
Apply a levels adjustment to lighten background but not bird
flatten layers

Using your original RAW or the original TIF will yield better masking than is possible on this small JPG

By the way -- next time you have OOF perch end, make a second image with just that in focus and stack the images with masking. You'll have it all in focus.

Nice image of the bird, by the way

[RAM MALLYA]

Thanks a lot Don for the repost and the tips will surely try this .

[Don Nelson]

By the way, when I say mask, I meant selection then cntl-J to put it on separate layer...

[Karl Egressy]

Great tips and excellent repost by Don.
I like the bird in the original picture, but the background and the perch are not the best.
You can still try to get rid of the OOF end of the perch by using spot healing brush.