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Thread: Greater Kestrel take-off

  1. #1
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Default Greater Kestrel take-off

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    I created this image last week in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park. It is officially my first raptor take-off shot so I am very happy with it.

    This greater kestrel and his/her mate were sitting in a thorn tree beside the road. The mate was feeding on a mouse kill (have some nice pictures of that too), and this one decided to take off and fly to a nearby tree.

    I am very happy to have gotten this shot since my 1000D has a meager continuous shooting rate of 1.5fps in RAW.

    I did a quick workflow on an uncalibrated screen so I hope the colours and exposure look okay on other screens - will see what the feedback says ;). The light was still slightly harsh at 3pm but I quite like the way it came out.

    Techs:
    Canon 1000D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 200mm
    f8.0 @ 1/1600 SS @ ISO-400
    Exp +0.3
    Morkel Erasmus

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  2. #2
    Dave Barnes
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    Hi Morkel, I trust you had a good time?
    A first is always a great feeling and you captured this well with the 1000D.
    I think it can be improved with a bit more TLC.
    I would suggest that you look at the following:
    Increase contrast a tad.
    Decrease exp of the sky. Use exp selectively and not H/S
    Increase sats on bird.
    Remove halo from sharpening.

    Just my thoughts, The image is worth the extra trouble.

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    I'm sure it's tough to get good action images at 1.5 fps Morkel, but you did quite well here. Considering the time of day, you did quite well with your exposure. I like the habitat inclusion. Here's a repost in which I boosted the saturation of the bird, reduced BG brightness, and removed a slight color cast by pushing the magenta/ green slider 12 clicks to the right. What do you think?
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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Hey Mork, looks like you had a productive trip. Great first, and you have done exceptionally well. Im very short of raptors in my files, so I will take this any day. Great advice from both Dave and Doug, and Doug's repost looks good. Looking forward to many more from your trip.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    This is officially a very nice image. Love the pose and the SH. The repost is also very good. As someone who almost always creates one or at most two frames at a time, I am not sure that a fast frame rate camera is instrumental in capturing good take-off images.
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  6. #6
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks a lot for your feedback Artie, Stu, Doug & Dave

    @ Dave - yes we had a lovely trip. I somehow expected more animals but there were enough to keep us clicking away most of the day. will attempt some more TLC - as I said I did this on a monitor which was not best suited to the task, looking at it now at home it looks a bit dull as posted originally.

    @ Doug - thanks a lot for taking time to work on it. I like what you have done to make it pop and the colours more vibrant.

    @ Artie - thanks for the compliment! I always tell people a slow frame rate will help me learn when to press the shutter instead of rely on my 'machine-gun shutter' :)
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    I like it despite the light as you managed to get great level of detail. Nice pose and colors. Repost looks better indeed.
    Congratulations!

  8. #8
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks Ramon :)
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    Congrats on a great first Morkel! This is well exposed with great detail, pose and I like the angle of the shot.:)

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    This is very impressive Morkel. Regarding the light, you did very well for that time of day. A great first.

  11. #11
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks Vida and Hendri - and welcome to you both!! I should get a kickback for referring photographers to this site ;)

    (any moderators biting on that one??)
    :)
    Morkel Erasmus

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  12. #12
    Ákos Lumnitzer
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    Congrats on your first bro! Nice too if you asked me. :) Doug's repost is a big improvement and I am sure you can pull the same level of detail out with the methods described. As Maestro said, the frame rate is not the be all end all.

  13. #13
    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    thanks bro! appreciate the feedback.
    Morkel Erasmus

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