Swallow Tailed Kite

[Juan Tolentino]

The Swallow Tailed Kites spend around 4 weeks in our State before they continue their migration to South America. It was great to finally get the opportunity to photograph them from a boat last week. This particular image was captured with the Nikon D850 Handheld and Nikkor 500mm f4

ISO 400
f6.3
1/3200
Manual Mode
Processed on LR and PS. Neat image for background noise reduction
Crop approx. 50%


All C & C's will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for looking

JT

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Juan,
This is a very fine image - love the splashing water and POV looks good. Exposure and sharpness spot on. Very well done.
Allen

[John Mack]

Very nice. Love the trailing water and how the bird looks like it is skimming its belly across the water.

[annmpacheco]

Well done Juan, details, exposure, the colors of the wings are sweet! I like the trailing splash, super job here!

[Bill Dix]

What a unique image of this beautiful kite. Techs look good to me. Well done!

[gail bisson]

This is really good Juan!
I love the water trail and the skimming position with the perfect wings up position. Tack sharp!
Love the catchlight in the eye!
The image could go brighter and I think the white balance is a bit cool. I would warm it up a bit.
I would also select the whites in the wing and then decrease the blacks to try to get a truer white color.
Gail

[Eric Dienesch]

Hello, you can see me sit and say WOW to this great moment.

Thumbs up !!!

[Juan Tolentino]

This is really good Juan!
I love the water trail and the skimming position with the perfect wings up position. Tack sharp!
Love the catchlight in the eye!
The image could go brighter and I think the white balance is a bit cool. I would warm it up a bit.
I would also select the whites in the wing and then decrease the blacks to try to get a truer white color.
Gail

Thank you for the suggestions Gail, I made the changes, it was indeed a little cool and dark.

[gail bisson]

I think it looks better but I have never seen this kite up close and personal. Is the blue on the wings the correct color?
Gail

[Isaac Grant]

Juan this is super cool and I'm very happy for you for getting this shot. Such an amazing raptor and just watching it do this would be awesome for me. Getting a pic like this would be the icing on the cake. Super action, pose, details, and colors. The color of the wings look fine as the bird is not black and white. but has tones of blue and green on the flight feathers. I agree with Gail re the image being too dark and also could use to be warmed up. Your repost was a step in the right direction but you can push it more. I adjusted levels a bit, increased the exposure of the shot and warmed it up a bit. Simple tweaks that I think really add that extra pop that this shot deserves. I didn't bother getting the whites perfect, nor the highlights as this is best done on your full res file. Just wanted to give an idea where I think the shot should go by doing some global adjustments.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic action. I love the very many thin ripples in the water. I also like the tweaks brought about in the reposts.

[Juan Tolentino]

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. Isaac, thank you for taking the time to improve the image.

[Arthur Morris]

The reposts are great. Lake Woodruff?

with love, artie

[Juan Tolentino]

Thank you Artie, Yes, that's the place.