Pileated

[Dave_Douglass]

What technical feedback would you like if any? Any

What artistic feedback would you like if any? any’

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

I heard this guy out in my backyard area and it was nice enough to let me run in the house and grab my camera. I rarely see these beauties. D500, Nikon 200-500 lens, Nikon 1.4 TC, hand held, 1/1000th, f 8.0, 480mm, ISO 2000, AI Clear, cropped to 2789 x 3176

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[Allen_Brooks]

Lucky to see Woody in your backyard. A nice look and I like the color palette as well.

[Dennis_Plank]

Good job getting the focus on the head, Dave. Too bad you had that big out of focus foreground limb to contend with.

[Karl_Zuzarte (Karl Zuzarte, MNEC)]

You were fortunate to get this opportunity to photograph this Pileated Woodpecker. A couple of suggestions for you to consider:
The human eye tends to gravitate to the brightest, most colorful and sharp area. That said, I,

Cropped 15% off the left and reduced the exposure and highlights of this area
Reduced the exposure of the sky
Brought out the most important part - the bird - increasing exposure and some texture
The bird’s wing may be overshadowing the head a bit, so I toned down this some

[Dave_Douglass]

Well done, Karl. Thanks for this input! Big improvement.