BSK Underexposed?

[Tom Rambaut]

Black Shouldered Kite by tphrambaut, on Flickr

Is this underexposed?

7d, 500mm f4 @ 5.6, 1.4 ext, 1/4000 and 400 ISO, oh and -2/3EV (not sure why this was done).

Hand held. I did a mask on the eye, sharpened and brought the orange colour out. This is a youngster and has some lovely plumage.

Thanks Tom

[ldelacruz]

I think it is. I would bring it up a bit.

[Paul Randall]

Not by much mate. The eye also looks a little too vivid I think. Looks nice and sharp on all the features.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Technically it is not underexposed much...you do have some highlights touching the right edge of the histogram so even more would have resulted in blown areas. The problem is the light coming from above has rendered most of the bird shaded. Either some fill-flash at time of capture, or some additional post-processing work is what the image needs. Here I lifted the midtones by quite a bit, and then selectively dodged areas of the breast and undertail. I also added back some darks to the wings afterwards...

P.S. A bit tight on the comp and the perch is not ideral, but I like the the criss-crossing angle of the pose/perch.

[Tom Rambaut]

Far from ideal lighting conditions. sometimes you just take what you can get.

I like the technique of lightening the underside of the tail.

I may give it some more on the room on the top.

Thanks Tom