Red Kite (Milvus milvus)

[Humberto Ramos]

Like I said in my previous post, I have 1/8000 of a sec at f/5.6, because the kite was in a tree with dark green BG, it was early morning and I needed ISO 800 to get decent exposures, suddenly he took of and only had time to change exposure.
As I'm initiating BIF I need critics and advices.
Thanks...



Canon 1D IV+Canon 600 f/4, Hide
1/8000 at f/5.6, -1/3 EV, ISO 800

[Colin Knight]

Looks sharp! Looks grainy underneath the wings. Maybe some more NR? I do like the head angle and the lighting works very well too.

[Humberto Ramos]

Thanks colin, I did some shadows recover on Lightroom but no NR, because was afraid of lose some detail.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Looks very sharp, nicely done. I would have gone with a bit more shadow recovery under the wings though TFS

[Bill Dix]

Great stare, and I like the hint of clouds in the sky. There may be a faint trace on PP artifact around the flared primaries; hard to tell on my screen. And I would also vote for just a little more shadow recovery under the wings if it doesn't make the noise worse.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Umberto, good ss to create excellent sharpness, and I like the attentive stare. Clouds always adds that something extra to a sky BG.

When shooting into the sky on a 'darker' subject, I normally use a + EC to bring out more detail. Its a matter of experimenting and see what results you get. I see your setting was with a - EC, thus the lack of detail on the underwings. Different species will render different results. After time, you will nail it each shot.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the sharpness, stare and cloud/sky BG. Well done Humberto!

[Tiago Caravana]

Hello Humberto
For me the biggest dificullty in the BIF photos is also the shadow zone underneath the wings, like Stuart says I normally also use negative EC's
I like the photo. One thing that I like that's not been said is the diagonal created by the bird in the frame.

[Humberto Ramos]

Hi Umberto, good ss to create excellent sharpness, and I like the attentive stare. Clouds always adds that something extra to a sky BG.

When shooting into the sky on a 'darker' subject, I normally use a + EC to bring out more detail. Its a matter of experimenting and see what results you get. I see your setting was with a - EC, thus the lack of detail on the underwings. Different species will render different results. After time, you will nail it each shot.

Hi Stuard,

I also use more EC on white BG, but I was using spot metering on the bird head and even with -1/3 EC, the whites in the head almost blowed.

[Humberto Ramos]

Hello Humberto
For me the biggest dificullty in the BIF photos is also the shadow zone underneath the wings, like Stuart says I normally also use negative EC's
I like the photo. One thing that I like that's not been said is the diagonal created by the bird in the frame.

Hi Tiago, welcome to BPN community,

I think Stuard said + EC, normally in white bG, the camera tends to darker the image to get the correct exposure of the sky, if you compensate this adding some more exposure, you will get the subject well exposed and the sky in this case more white, you can also add more EC to try to expose right without burning the whites. And then in post-processing you decrease the exposure selective to try to get all the bird with the right exposure, doing this you will have less noise.

Its very strange to me to wright in English to a Portuguese

[Stu Bowie]

You explained it perfectly.

[Tiago Caravana]

Of course! I wanted to say positive instead of negative EC. Alentejo skies are normally very bright
Thanks for noticing it :)

[Humberto Ramos]

Great stare, and I like the hint of clouds in the sky. There may be a faint trace on PP artifact around the flared primaries; hard to tell on my screen. And I would also vote for just a little more shadow recovery under the wings if it doesn't make the noise worse.

Thanks Bill, but I don't see no artifacts.

Here is a 100% view of the wings...

[gail bisson]

It has all been said. I would like a tighter crop.
Gail

[Frank Schauf]

Really nice flight shot and great details.