Restart from Scratch:
Sky color correction:
Original:
I’m a total novice when it comes to birds in flight. I’m actually pretty terrible at it. I lucked out with this Kestrel and got a pretty good hovering shot.
Any comments appreciated.
600mm, 1/1000 sec @ f/8, ISO 250.
I’d say so. Very nice facial detail and a slight wing blur.
I like how you have composed this. I have never seen a kestrel, you have captured the details of the head and colours very well. Thanks for sharing.
David, a fine stop action hovering image of this Kestrel. I sure miss the one that visited the open area behind our block wall for years… 
Hi David,
A very nice pose and all this image needs is some adjustments to reduce the cyan/yellow color cast in the sky. Other than that, looks good and Happy Holidays…Jim
@Allen_Brooks, @Robena.Sirett, @Paul_Breitkreuz, and @Jim_Zablotny thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated.
Jim, I tweaked the sky color and reposted above. It was a rather flat sky, so a bit of white balance change made it bluer. Hope I didn’t go too far. I couldn’t see the color cast so thanks for pointing it out.
Wonderful shot! But your color-blindness has probably caused a strange correction for the sky. It may indeed have been on the cyan side but there is a yellow-cyan cast on the kestrel, too. I didn’t have success using Color Balance, as correcting the sky made the bird too reddish. Selective Color would have worked with more trouble, but I used the Camera Raw filter and got an easy fix by dialing down the cyan and adding just a bit of blue. Also brought up Shadows just a bit.
I agree, the first thing I noticed is that it felt overly cyan. The bird was green. I’m still not sure this is exactly right but it’s a good step in the right direction for sure.
Nice catch David! These are such spooky birds so great to get one hovering like this. I like the side view and wing position. Agree Diane’s repost of the color is in the right direction.
Thanks @Diane_Miller, @Eric_Bennett, and @Allen_Sparks.
I went back to the beginning and reprocessed the image, posted above.
Diane, I think this exercise shows I need to stick to B&W imagery:
Your restart from scratch looks perfect! With a little trouble, you can measure blues (or any color) in the raw converter and adjust. Best done before pouring glue on the job in going to PS. In LR (Develop module) the color values are displayed just below the histogram for wherever the cursor is. I think you use a different converter but it probably has the same feature. A bird I’m about to post shows the middle-toned blues at 55-58-76 for R-G-B.
The rework is much improved, David. Great capture of the kestrel hovering. Right location at the right time. I love the black and white. I never think to do that with birds.
The from scratch version…spot on !
Whew, finally. I’m not sure what got tweaked on the first and second versions…
Thank you @Diane_Miller, @David_Haynes, and @Paul_Breitkreuz for your comments and help.
Diane, yes, I use Capture One and it displays the RGB readings just above the image, wherever the cursor is over the image. It’s very helpful and I use it often. I’ll remember your middle tone blues reading as a guide for more correct sky.
Cheers,
David
