Please don't touch my lens (Peregrine falcon)

[Matthew Jones]

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus macropus)
NSW, Australia

Canon EOS 1DX | Canon 500mm f4 II | Handheld, manual exposure | 1/4000 f/7.1 ISO 2500
Basic PP, lightened shadows, levels, curves, slight crop, sharpen and slight contrast adjustment on BG

Having recently returned from a 3-week road trip photographing birds, landscapes and wildlife I was afforded some wonderful opportunities including many falcon sessions of which one was productive. Fortunately this time I came away with a few decent frames. Arash's flight photography guide came in very handy here, thanks mate.

[Bill Dix]

Great dynamic flight shot. Nice light, sharpness. I'd give him just a bit of room to left and bottom, and remove the sharpening halo at the head. A beauty.

[Mike Poole]

Fantastic screaming action Matthew, and the look to the camera really helps things. Perfect world scenario might have the upper wing a bit more extended but we're getting into nit-picking territory as I'm well aware of the difficulty in getting flight shots of these.

I agree with Bill about looking at the halo around the face.

A frame I'd be delighted to have in my files.

Mike

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very dynamic pose! I agree the subject is rather tight in the frame - easy fix, even if you don't have it in the original frame. Nice and sharp, and I like some of the feathers on the lower wing and tail slightly lifting and casting a shadow - pretty cool.

[Matthew Jones]

Thanks gentlemen, your critiques are greatly appreciated. The RP provides a touch more space with some trade off in detail and punch by pushing her back in the frame and I'm now wondering which version people prefer? I think I have addressed the PP artifact?

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent dynamic pose and great light, sharp with good details. I like the sharpness of the original sans the halo. if you are using a sharpening mask, try to feather 2 pixels before sharpening

TFS

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent flight shot. Beautiful colors, superb wing position and fanned tail..

Regards,
Satish.

[David Salem]

Great looking capture Matthew. Love the pose and the details in the original post. I like the tighter comp, it concentrates our eyes to the nice details captured.
Got to be happy with that one!!

[Matthew Jones]

Excellent dynamic pose and great light, sharp with good details. I like the sharpness of the original sans the halo. if you are using a sharpening mask, try to feather 2 pixels before sharpening

TFS

Thanks Ari, I tweaked the feather and shift edge settings but couldn't get a good result. The background sky is high key in RAW resulting in a high contrast interface with the subject. In the end I managed the artifact with the clone stamp tool with a write up on the details in my BLOG. This RP is the result with a slight composition tweak, somewhere between the two above.

[Matthew Jones]

Great looking capture Matthew. Love the pose and the details in the original post. I like the tighter comp, it concentrates our eyes to the nice details captured.
Got to be happy with that one!!

Cheers David, yes very happy to finally be getting some PF keepers. Thanks for your inputs, they are very much appreciated.