Was sitting in a blind by a pond. Was taking pictures of a thrasher on the far bank, when I saw this Kite coming in for a landing. Overcast morning.D700 500 f/4 AFS 1.7 TC ISO 1600 f/7.1 1/3200 EV+2/3 PP in LR3, brightened bird a bit and left the background alone, bumps vibrance and sat for the colorssharpened and noise reduction
An interesting pose with dangling talons, flared wings/primaries. Might be worth trying to bring up the shadowed areas a bit more if possible. I might consider cropping down about 1/3 of the free space from above.
Because the sky blends into the background on the site, I often will use a thin, dark frame to help separate the image from the background.
Did you run the noise reduction on the bird itself? The IQ seems a little soft.
Nice job catching this guy. Kite looks a tad soft to me. I like his pose. Would remove the small bits of greenery at the bottom left, crop a tad off the top and go with Randy's suggestion for a slim dark border.
I like the high key look of this image. I also like the pose of the bird for the reasons Randy mentioned. If the far wing had been raised more so that it did not interest with the head I feel the presentation would have been stronger but pretty darn nice as is. I am OK with the composition but, agree that Randy's suggestion is a valid alternative. On my monitor the underside of the bird and the near wings has a greenish cast. I assume that this is a reflection from the green foliage? I also get this type of color appearing in areas of shadow when I try and lighten an under them too much. Thanks for sharing.