Church Road Crested Caracara

[Bob Pelkey]

This image is miraculously uncropped. The species can be seen almost assuredly at this venue in Felda, Florida.

With CS5 . . . shadows +25%, vibrance +15, saturation +3, sharpen edges, reduce noise 7. 29. 45. 23, brightness 5, contrast 5.

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV ,Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM
1/1000s f/4.0 at 600.0mm iso400 hide exif

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	03-Jan-2015 12:06:21
Make	Canon
Model	Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	600 mm
Exposure Time	1/1000 sec
Aperture	f/4
ISO Equivalent	400
Exposure Bias	0
White Balance	0
Metering Mode	matrix (5)
JPEG Quality	(7)
Exposure Program	aperture priority (3)
Focus Distance	21.8 m

The time in the camera has not been adjusted for daylight savings time. Make it 11:06:21.

[dankearl]

Fantastic species and nice BG to go with.
I would have gone with much higher iso and SS, but the head is sharp and the bird is well presented.

[Bob Pelkey]

Thank you for your comment, Dan. I am typically starting with ISO 1000 in the low light at sunrise, and work my way as quickly as possible to ISO 400 or better. I neglected to mention a tripod was used, and panning, of course.

Fantastic species and nice BG to go with.
I would have gone with much higher iso and SS, but the head is sharp and the bird is well presented.

[Nikhil Patwardhan]

Hi Bob,

Nice composition and exposure. The pose is very nice, it conveys a sense of action, this is great.
Two things I would have done differently: it appears to have a magenta color cast and also the noise reduction seems to have robbed some of the detail on the neck and possibly on the head and face too.

Cheers,
Nikhil

[Bob Pelkey]

Thank you for your comment, Nikhil. The very minimal color cast certainly favors the face of the bird which I don't mind too much. I don't think the noise reduction impacted the bird's in focus aspects. Your desire for more detail there may be improved with a different type of sharpening of the image. What's your recommendation?

[gail bisson]

Nice BG and the head is nice and sharp.
The blur on the wings gives a nice sense of movement.
I agree about the magenta cast and that is an easy fix.
Would have like to see the wings fully down and that would have allowed the head to be clear of the far wing.
Good image,
Gail

[Bob Pelkey]

Thank you for your thoughts, Gail.

Nice BG and the head is nice and sharp.
The blur on the wings gives a nice sense of movement.
I agree about the magenta cast and that is an easy fix.
Would have like to see the wings fully down and that would have allowed the head to be clear of the far wing.
Good image,
Gail

[Nikhil Patwardhan]

Your desire for more detail there may be improved with a different type of sharpening of the image. What's your recommendation?

I don't quite understand what you mean by different kind of sharpening. You have sharpened the edges, which I think is great, it is exactly how I would do it. I do not feel confident to say that sharpening applied on top of noise reduction on the head and neck area as it stands now would actually bring back any detail; I actually suspect that it might look worse.. I would apply only mild/no noise reduction for web posting since your image fills the frame to begin with. Personally I would prefer to see feather detail in an image like this rather than smooth tones in the head region, which to me looks a bit unnatural, almost like a model And sorry for the late reply, only just saw your response.