Crested Caracara

Shot at Falcon SP TX.
1D MK4, 300mm2.8, 1.4TC.
f5.6, 1/5000, iso400,
Cropped, slight exposure, fill light and contrast adjustment, some sharpening and noise reduction in ACR, removed small oof branch lower right corner.

Joe

Pose, perch and comp are sweet! Try to pull more detail in blacks. Bob
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Excellent image! +1 on Bob's comments, especially his suggestion about the blacks. On my monitor (MacBook Pro, not calibrated) the entire bird seems too dark. I DL'ed the image and took it into PS and used the S&H adjustment to bring up the shadows and it brought out a lot of detail in the body.

John

Nice look back pose here Joe. Nice colors, agree on opening up the shadows a bit. I like the perch that he's chosen. Well done.
TFS
Todd

Thanks Todd, John and Bob for your comments.
On my calibrated 27" iMac I can see feather detail in the dark area of the bird and the whites on the neck are bright without losing detail. In real life the body of a Caracara is a dark brown, almost black. As I see it on my monitor, the image of the bird as originally posted looks quite natural to me.
I have reprocessed the image as suggested.
Do you like this version better?

Joe

Like the repost Joe. Nice work.

Joe, the repost looks better to me as well. You opened up the image just enough for more detail to show without washing out the body.

John