Laughing falcon

[Richard Stern]

Tortugero National Park, Costa Rica, in November. D7000, 300 f/4 AF-S + 1.4 TC. Hand-held, 1/6400. f/5.6, ISO800. No flash.

NR and selective sharpening. Some extraneous branches cloned away. I wish the tail tip hadn't been directly in front of a branch, but that was the way the bird stayed till it flew.

Thanks for looking.

Richard

[gail bisson]

What a beautiful bird Richard. I like your choice of composition and the HA. I have 3 suggestions:
1. As you have already cloned a few branches out I would continue with the clone brush and clone out the big vertical branch on the left of the bird.Heck, you could even clone out the big bottom branch.
2. I see a lot of noise in the breast and belly feathers. Is this a big crop or did you need to boost the exposure in PP a lot? Why were you at such a high SS? I would have opted for a lower ISO and /or smaller aperture
3. I can see some cloning residue in the branch just below and between the talons. Easy fix. TFS
Gail

[Jim Crosswell]

Nice image Richard! I like Gails suggestions. I have only seen these Falcons high in the trees.

[Doug Brown]

The angle is steep, but it's nice to get a clear look at one of these beautiful birds! The image is sharp, but the noise is prominent. The shutter speed makes me think the entire bird was underexposed; it looks like you metered the sky. I'd lose the entire lower branch.

[wendell westfall]

I love the bird (creamy breast and striped tail)! And I echo Gail's #1, #2, #3 fix . . .