Black-cheeked Woodpecker Costa Rica

[vikram potdar]

Camera - Nikon D700
Lens - Nikkor 600 mm f/4 VR
ISO - 200
EV - -0.33
SS - 1/100
No flash fired

[prasanna av]

love this. great bird, lovely BG and colours. could have done with a bit more space I feel.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A pleasing image from a compositional point of view, I think the processing is a little too heavy, perhaps a tad too saturated and I think there is a slight yellow/green cast probably due to the surrounding foliage. I would also consider burning the highlight so the uppermost surface of the branch, and in addition add a little canvas to the base (tail almost cut off).

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Vikram, I like the details. Also liked the light reflected in the eye.

I'd have preferred a non-sqaure crop here...a vertical or horizontal both would work better IMO.

[Bill Holsten]

Vikram, nice bird, nice colors and sharp. I would take some canvas off the top and add some to the bottom to get an aspect ratio in the 4/3 range. Also the detail in the white and red hilites on the head are blown out and probably could have been at least somewhat recovered (along with the hilites on the top of the perch) if you shot this in RAW. A few degrees of CCW head rotation would have been helpful, but the eye contact is pretty good. This is a personal thing, but I like to clean up the beak, removing food and at least some of the scars.

[Peter Dexter]

Nice capture of this colorful woodpecker. Looks like a female or juvenile? I would have given the tail more room.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Nice shot and agree with the above comments. I think if you'd desaturate it about 20%, the blown reds could be recovered.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice pose, colours and details. I wish for more room at the bottom of the frame.

[Siddhesh Bramhankar]

This is something amazing. Vertical tight frame would be better in my opinion. :)

[vikram potdar]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Here is the horizontal image with reduced excess saturation.