Mississippi Kite

[Judy Howle]

Hello everyone! This is my first post here although I post often in the OOTB forum and occasionally on the landscape forum. My longest lens is the Canon 100 - 400 and I shoot handheld. This kite landed in a tree in the neighbor's yard at the edge of our yard and my hubby saw it and called to tell me so I grabbed my 7D and ran outside. It was in the very top of an old, very tall sweetgum tree. The IS quit working on the 100 - 400 so it was quite a challenge holding it still at such an angle but I think it came out pretty sharp after using Topaz Detail and Smart Sharpen in CS6.

Canon 7D; 1/400 sec; f/7.1; ISO 200; 8:34 AM (I try not to go above ISO 200 with the 7D to keep the noise down so that's why I went to f/7.1.)

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Judy, I remember this from OOTB. Lovely pose (it'd make a great Asian Week image) and I like the diagonal branch. They are lovely birds. Great job of handholding. I wish there were a little less shadow under the tail.

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Cheryl! Yes it is dark under the tail but I lightened it twice in Lr with the adjustment brush and by lightening shadows until it started looking wonky in the full size.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Judy, nice to see you here! You have a nice capture here with only a couple of things to discuss. The first is shooting angle, as the bird is pretty high up in the tree and the other is the shadows that Cheryl mentions, as the sun looks to have been pretty high in the sky. I suggest lowering the highlights a bit and maybe adding a touch of saturation. Beautiful bird, one of my faves!

[Judy Howle]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions Kerry! I started over with the raw image and toned down the highlights and lightened the shadows a good bit more with the sliders and used the brush also on the shadows. I straightened the bird more with a new crop and added a bit more sky on the right so it wouldn't be quite so square. I added vibrance so it looks punchier now! The color was a bit too warm for my taste so I made the WB cooler which I like better.