Juvenile YBK

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Let me celebrate my return to BPN with this shot of a juvenile Yellow-billed Kite, recently taken in the Kgalagadi game reserve (SA).

D600 + Tamron 150-600 G2 @ 600mm | f/7.1 | 1/800s | 160 ISO | Beanbag in car window

[John Mack]

Nice. Everything here looks good. Nice perch,background,pose and light.

[Jake Levin]

Nice perch, post, background, and bird! I really like how the rusty red colour is present in all three elements of the picture (the perch, the bird, and the background) As framed he is a bit centered and doesn't have much room to look into, so I would move him a bit to the right and/or add some canvas on the left. Did you really shoot at 160 ISO, or did you mean to write 1600?

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

... Did you really shoot at 160 ISO, or did you mean to write 1600?

Thanks for commenting Jake. It was 160 ISO - it allowed me just that extra little bit to stay at f/7.1 & 1/800s.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Welcome back! Great bird, good perch, beautiful BG. For sue I would have zoomed out for more breathing room around the subject, and if cooperative trying different comps such as verticals as well. Nice colours overall.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Welcome back! Great bird, good perch, beautiful BG. For sue I would have zoomed out for more breathing room around the subject, and if cooperative trying different comps such as verticals as well. Nice colours overall.

Thanks for the welcome back & comments, Daniel. Since this is the 2nd plea for a bit more space to look into, I've opted for a 4:3 crop in this repost.

[Isaac Grant]

Very nice perch and background here. Details look pretty good. Are the colors accurate on this bird? My recollection of them is that they are more of a warm brown with orange tones and are not nearly this saturated. I would bring down the saturation of the whole shot, and specifically the reds and yellows. Some of your blacks are blocked and need to be opened up a touch. And you should tone down some of your highlights as well.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Very nice perch and background here. Details look pretty good. Are the colors accurate on this bird? My recollection of them is that they are more of a warm brown with orange tones and are not nearly this saturated. I would bring down the saturation of the whole shot, and specifically the reds and yellows. Some of your blacks are blocked and need to be opened up a touch. And you should tone down some of your highlights as well.

Thanks for commenting Isaac! Yea, the colors are accurate and it also confused me to such a degree that I had to consult our more experienced photographers to ID it for me (and I know YBK's well - they are a common occurrence here). Maybe it had something to do with the red-ish color of the Kalahari desert sand in which it operates (also evident in the shot). The highlights had already been toned down by -51 and when I lower the saturation the whole shot changes to a false perception of what it actually looked like.

[Isaac Grant]

In warm light camera sensors very often over saturate the photos and in post you need to reduce the saturation to get it back in line. Judging from the photo it appears that this is one of those times.