Kestrel - Takeoff

[Bob Serling]

I had the opportunity to go with Dave Salem and two other photographer friends to shoot at Dave's favorite perches. Highlights of the day were great photo opps for Kestrels and a gorgeous Merlin. Thanks, Dave for a great day and your deep knowledge of the raptors in your area!

Canon 1D Mark IV
Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 v1 with 1.4x teleconverter vII
420 mm
f/7.1
1/5000
800 ISO
Hand held, shot from a truck used as a blind

I'd appreciate any comments and critique.

[Loi Nguyen]

Bob, gorgeous take off pose. Good BG too. Not sure what ISO setting was, but the BG looks a little noisy to me. Loi

[Bob Serling]

Thanks Loi! The bg is definitely noisy. I processed this in Lightroom and need to learn Photoshop so I can start using selective noise reduction. Unfortunately, if I used noise reduction in LR, it would apply it to the entire image. Hope to get some time in soon learning Photoshop.

[arash_hazeghi]

pose is really nice and dynamic but IQ isn't quite there, bird is a bit soft (especially the head) and quite noisy for such low ISO, it seems like you had to sharpen him aggressively(?). If the RAW was sharp this frame may come alive with good processing

TFS

[keith mitchell]

Think the good advice you have from Arash might be worth another try, the action pose of the bird is superb.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hello Bob, beautiful take off pose. I echo the previous comments. I wanted to respond to your comment regarding noise reduction in Lightroom applying it to only the whole image. If you become familiar with the Adjustment Brush and using the mask within that module you can selectively apply noise reduction to any part of the image where necessary. Hoping this helps you.

[Bob Serling]

Thanks everyone.

Arash - I checked the raw file for this shot and though good, it is not the best in this sequence. So I'll try again with another shot and I appreciate your comments.

Joseph - thanks for the insight on the adjustment brush. I'll give it a try.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I like the dynamic pose the bird gave you. NR has been mentioned, especially at such low ISO. Is this a large crop? I would love to see a repost of this image. Thanks for sharing.

[David Salem]

Hey Bob, it was fun having you and Chris out here. Glad you got some nice frames. This one is a very dynamic take off pose and I like the wing position allot. I agree about the noise and I think when you get some NR software this one will shine. I might also be tempted to reduce the crop a bit to lessen the impact of the noise in the bird. Nice shooting with you guys and see you soon.

[Bob Serling]

Yes, it was about a 50% crop. Eventually I'll repost once I learn Photoshop and can apply NR properly.

[Bob Serling]

Thanks, Dave. It was a blast and the light was great both morning and afternoon. Looking forward to seeing you down here to capture the Grebes rushing. It's definitely one of the coolest experiences I've had and it never gets old.

[Vijayashankara Nanjegowda]

Oh... I can imagine the the time you spent waiting for it to take off, Kestrels can sit in a single place for a longtime...

[keith mitchell]

Hi ,Bob hope you don't mind me asking but what sort of distance from the bird when the shot was taken(300ml +1.4 tc.)

Keith.

[Bob Serling]

Hi Keith - We were about 15 to 20 feet away. The truck acts as a blind and the birds will let you get quite close. I quickly discovered that you can even move your rig some or raise and lower the window without spooking them. But at one point, I moved my hand down to from my rig to rest in on the window, which the bird saw, and it was gone in a flash. A biologist friend tells me that's because birds don't identify the truck or your equipment as being a predator, but they are well aware the humans are a threat to them.

[keith mitchell]

Thanks for that Bob, I did wonder about the distance effecting the image quality but 15 to 29 ft should be good. Agree with your friend about vehicles making hides ,I get good results from my car with just a bit of scrim netting over the window to photograph Snipe and Owls.
Keith.