Kestrel Sisters

[Kerry Perkins]

Captured last summer when I found a pair of nesting American Kestrels. They had four chicks, two males and two females. Here are the two sisters at the time they were fledging. They were having a family discussion.

7D, EF400mm f/5.6L
Manual mode, f/5.6@1/2500 ISO 400 WB 5100K
AI Servo autofocus, hand-held no flash

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Like it Kerry. How far away and nice use of DoF.

[gail bisson]

What a lovely picture. It looks like they are having a conversation! I see you shoot with a 7D and wonder how you deal with noise. And in this picture is there the correct amount of noise reduction in the BG?
Gail

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Jeff, I would guess that I was about 30 feet from the tree.

Thank you Gail. I use a couple of different noise reduction programs but I did not use much on this one. I didn't want to lose the detail on these birds and I felt the selection process would be pretty tough. What I should do is run a pretty strong NR pass on a new layer, then use a layer mask to apply it selectively to the bg.

[Bill Dix]

Terrific image, Kerry. Eye contact and interaction are wonderful. Amazing that you had both birds sharp at f/5.6. A slight move to your right would have improved the HA on the left bird and put a tiny separation between the two bodies, but of course we don't often have that luxury. It wouldn't be difficult to select both birds and perch, select inverse to get a layer of just the green bg, and run NR on that.

[wendell westfall]

Very nice, Kerry. Are you sure it is not just one bird looking into a mirror . . .

[Dick Huberty]

I love the shot, Kerry. It looks like you got them in a very serious family discussion. The depth of field looks very good on this shoot for f5.6. A little curious why you used such a fast shutter speed instead of stopping down the lens for more DOF. Does your 400mm have IS?

Dick Huberty

[Kerry Perkins]

Dick, the 400mm f/5.6 does not have IS. I will always opt for a higher shutter speed as I don't use a tripod.

[Roy Priest]

Kerry, love the interaction here. The front birds feet seem a little bright on my laptop. Really nice shot.

[Tommy Rodgers]

As a newcomer, I am uncomfortable committing on your work. I always read with great interest your critiques and find them among the most helpful. I do like the family discussion theme and the sharpness of both birds.

I am most appreciative of the short discussion about how to handle noise. I am just venturing into the wilds of Photoshop from Lighroom and often overlook the obvious. The technique of isolating the subject from the background so as not to affect the subject was an eye opener.


Thanks very much for all the work you do and the help you give so many. And thanks for sharing this image

Best regards,

[shane shacaluga]

Great shot Kerry. Thanks for sharing.

[Joe Brown]

At first glance I thought the bird on the left was looking in mirror. Very well taken with great light. I do not see any significant noise in the bg.

Excellent work.

Joe

[nancy hazen]

I love this one! The pose tells the story! Fantastic!
Nancy