Black-Shouldered Kite

[Rudi van den Heever]

Location: Rietvlei Nature Reserve, South Africa
Equipment: Canon 7D and 500mm F4 L lens
Settings: 1/3200s at F5.6 and ISO 800

My first image of this specie...

[Dumay de Boulle]

Beautiful light, pose and awesome BG...But the noise is very noticeable on the whole body and wings....Still waiting for my first decent image of my favorite bird

[Doug Brown]

Love the take-off pose, although I wish the bird was angled towards you. Noise is fairly pronounced in places. Detail looks good although sharpening has left you with some artifacts. It also appears that you have blurred the BG; I might go with a little less blur. Our White-tailed Kite is one of my favorite birds, so I'm sure you were excited to get this frame.

[Rudi van den Heever]

Thanks Dumay and Doug... Yes, the noise is noticeable in this image and maybe due to the crop that is substantial... Did not apply any blur to the BG and only some noise reduction in CS5...

[Jonathan Ashton]

Absolutely brilliant, I agree a little noise but I bet that can easily be dealt with, hey what a superb print this would make.

[Gary Hamilton]

What an incredible eye this bird has! Agree with above comments regarding noise but this image is just stunning. Well done.

[Rudi van den Heever]

Thanks Jonathan and Gary!

Anyone has some good settings for CS5 noise reduction on the subject itself, like in this image, without loosing too much detail?!

[anujgandhe]

lovely pose, bg execellent. a bit of noise visible on wings...

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Rudi, pose, eye, light, BG, timing...simply stunning. You say its a big crop but details are quite good. advantage of 7D. I dont think it would be easy to remove this noise on the bird without losing details. But I am not an expert on that. I'd let Arash chime in on that.

[Robert Holguin]

Real nice shot. Great timing, really like the take off pose, real nice light, and great background. Nits already mentioned.
Well done.

[Wynand van Wyk]

Stunning action captured here! Love the pose and beautiful background. Ditto on the noise on the subject.

Still need a shot like this. Very well done!

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent dynamic pose and a great BG, nice wing positions,bummer that noise has really hurt this image

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Jonathan and Gary!

Anyone has some good settings for CS5 noise reduction on the subject itself, like in this image, without loosing too much detail?!

Rudi, I know some people may cringe when I say this but I use Topaz denoise5 and assess the results for the standard settings when viewed at 1:1, they are infinitely adjustable but I guess I am too lazy and just go for one of the presets.

[Rudi van den Heever]

Thanks guys! Jonathan, I will give it a go... I just love technology!

[Rudi van den Heever]

Here is the full frame image without any tweaks for those that are interested...

[Doug Brown]

Rudi was kind enough to send me his RAW file. Here is a repost that tries to reduce noise on the bird, improve sharpness, and push the whites a little further to the right.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Doug, great job.

Rudi, it is indeed a big crop but I am impressed with the details. I think a wider crop will also work as you have such a nice clean BG.

[Rudi van den Heever]

Great work Doug!