Galapagos Hawk

[Art Peslak]

Nikon D3x, 500mm f/4 with 1.4 TC, 1/800 at f/5.6

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great bird, I like the head pose here,
great work with back-light, head is in shadow but you did
great job brightening it (flash or PS?)
I think I see bright regions between the primaries, I think I've seen
something similar before, not sure is it real or artifact of tiff to jpeg conversion.

[Brian Barcelos]

Love his inquisitive look. You did great with the light you were given. Only wish there were more separation of head/wing and I might lighten the eye a little further. Congrats

Brian

[Art Peslak]

Great bird, I like the head pose here,
great work with back-light, head is in shadow but you did
great job brightening it (flash or PS?)
I think I see bright regions between the primaries, I think I've seen
something similar before, not sure is it real or artifact of tiff to jpeg conversion.

No Flash allowed in Galapagos. I metered off the bottom of the bird to get it as bright as possible in camera without blowing out the sky. I then did a slight shadow recovery in Aperture prior to conversion and a small amount of additional brightening around the head using Nik VIveza.