Common Kestrel

[Richard Stern]

At Ranthambore, India in Feb. I know the angle is steep, but I also feel that the direct look and the dawn lighting might compensate for that. Comments welcome.

Camera Model: NIKON D300
Image Date: 2010:02:12 06:38:20
Focal Length: 80-400 VR, hand-held, 400.0mm (35mm equivalent: 600mm)
Focus Distance: 11.9m
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure Time: 0.0016 s (1/640)
ISO equiv: 400
Exposure Bias: +0.33

Richard

[Harold Davis]

the direct stare down makes up for the steep angle for me! i see a pretty distinct halo around the dark side of the bird. maybe from an S&H adjustment? i might add some contrast to the bird. all but the lit part of the head. be interesting to see what others say about the square crop. seems a vertical would be more natural with that pose.

[Fabs Forns]

I played with this a bit. I think it had a bit of yellow cast, so I wen to to Colo Balance and added 18points of blue and 7 points of red to balance the cast. Lightened the part of the face in the shadow, went to Curves and lowered the EXP on the hot cheek and cropped some.
Hope you like it.

[Arthur Morris]

Good repost by Fabs but the extreme angle of elevation, the up the butt view, and the uneven lighting with the hot cheek are all negatives.... I do like that the bird is looking at you.... Just too many serious flaws for me.