Female common kestrel

[Christian Muellner]

Nikon D500 in manual mode with Sigma 150-600 C @ 440mm / f 6.0 / ISO 800 / SS 1/640 on Induro AT 414 tripod from a blind / late afternoon and gray sky / +1.7 EC

This kestrel is one of the three that come very close to our riding stables. I set up some "natural" perches around the area and they love to play together and "paint the town red" (<- correct use of this idiom?).

When photographing at this location I am VERY limited with my position (sunlight angle and where the birds are not too shy to land in the meadow and sit on the perch means I have to use the sky as background as in a lower position the white electric fences are everywhere in th e background).

LR CC settings:

• RAW processing
• Nikon Portrait profile
• +3 saturation
• +5 vibrance
• small angle adjustment
• (high) sharpening for screen on LR export after PS adjustments

PS CC adjustments

• 25% sharpening of claws and face
• a bit more exposure to the eye

What do you think? What can I do better next time? Regarding eyes I am often unsure how to improve them while keeping them look natural.

Best wishes and thanks in advance!
Christian

[Glenn Conlan]

Excellent detail, I think the crop is a little tight and overall could be brighter

[David Salem]

100% agree with Glenn's comments. Well done

[Mike Poole]

Another vote for a bit of brightness needed with a looser crop, possibly something along these lines



Mike

[Richard Flack]

Lovely, detailed image Christian, I agree with the feedback provided. TFS

[Ryan von Linden]

Very nice image, I agree with the comments already made. I would also try punching up the contrast just a bit, either with a small nudge of the contrast slider or with the tone curve.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful bird, nicely shown. I think the previous comments are spot on. Thank you for sharing, Christian.

[William Dickson]

More space around and I think you will have a great looking image. As said, the contrast would also enhance as per Mikes repost.

Will

[Christian Muellner]

Thank you all for your helpful comments and your effort!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Christian,

Welcome and thanks a stack for your membership support.

Working from Mike Poole's excellent repost in Pane #4 I added and filled in canvas on three sides and did tiny bit of Eye Doctor and NIK Color EFEX Pro work. While the perch leaves something to be desired the rest is superb.

Did you have more room in the original?

a

ps: each time that you post an image please make an effort to critique 5 images post by others :)

[Christian Muellner]

Hi Christian,

Welcome and thanks a stack for your membership support.

Working from Mike Poole's excellent repost in Pane #4 I added and filled in canvas on three sides and did tiny bit of Eye Doctor and NIK Color EFEX Pro work. While the perch leaves something to be desired the rest is superb.

Did you have more room in the original?

a

ps: each time that you post an image please make an effort to critique 5 images post by others :)

Hi Arthur,

thank you for your advice and the photo editing work. Unfortunately, this is full frame and I have to wait for the next opportunity, but that should not be a problem as the kestrels show up every ~60 minutes in this area. I try to get some better shots with the fast 70-200 by moving my artificial natural perch I built the day before yesterday a bit closer to the blind.

I wonder how you would do the Eye Doctor work by hand.

Next time I will do some critique by myself :-D. Thanks.

Best wishes,
Christian

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Arthur,

thank you for your advice and the photo editing work. Unfortunately, this is full frame and I have to wait for the next opportunity, but that should not be a problem as the kestrels show up every ~60 minutes in this area. I try to get some better shots with the fast 70-200 by moving my artificial natural perch I built the day before yesterday a bit closer to the blind.

I wonder how you would do the Eye Doctor work by hand. Next time I will do some critiquing myself :-D. Thanks. Best wishes, Christian

Hi again Christian, When I first commented I forgot to attach my repost. It seems that you might not have seen my repost with the added canvas. Did you see it now in Pane #10?

If the bird likes the post in the photo you can simply tape a more natural perch to it. Many times the bird will land on that within minutes...

The details of digital Eye Doctor work and tons more great Photoshop tips (including adding and filling in canvas) are detail in my Digital Basics file. You can learn more or purchase the PDF here.

a