Great Spotted Woodpecker

[Rene' Villela]

Good afternoon!
I had the chance to take a few more shots of these guys. I really like woodpeckers. I'll try to shoot another species I found.
Anyway, the data: Nikon D300 - AFS 300 f/4 - TC17eII, AP f/6.7, 1/400 sec, ISO 560

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Good-looking specimen and eye contact. The eye looks overflashed. What FEC setting did you use? There is also some noise in the shadows. I can also see some artifacts at the edge of the trunk, maybe from NR on the BG.

[Rene' Villela]

Hi Axel!
Yeah! The eye, what does it tell you? You see, I had never used flash on birds before I found BPN! :) I didn't wanna touch the eye coz I had never done it before. Artie mention something about EYE DOCTOR so I thought I live it alone until I get that info from him. Sorry but what's FEC? The artifacts by the trunk are blurred brunches coz I had to clean up the BG. I just missed those, I guess! Thank you for your comments! :)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

FEC is flash exposure compensation. If you use a better beamer or if you are relatively close, you could see if -1.3 works better to avoid the steel eye. Alternatively, you could darken the bright parts of the eye.

[Rene' Villela]

Axel, here is a repost. It looks better! Thanks! And I didn't use any FEC.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The repost looks definitely better. I would make the catchlight smaller and there are a few clone marks underneath the bird's back.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Agree with above comments. Beautiful bird and great pose and eye contact and will look forward to seeing more. Thanks for sharing Rene.