The falcon activities are picking up here in Southern California and I am still not done processing images from last year. This guy just snatched a red-necked phalarope from mom. Needless to say, his siblings were very unhappy.
Does the out of focus foreground bother you? I need to extend the canvas for a small portion of the lower-left corner but it was not too hard to rebuild. Should I clone out the white feathers scattered around the ice plant? Should I clone out the siblings (OOF) partially seen under the bird’s right (our left) wing ? All feedback is most welcome.
The great escape! Very well captured of a unique moment. The bits of feathers and sibling under wing do not bother me and for me are hardly noticeable. They kind of blend in. Certainly PS would do a good and quick job of cleaning up the feathers if you wanted.
The out of focus fg in lower left does bug me and drives me nuts in my photos. Sometimes you cannot get around it.
I really like all the detail and sharpness and the composition. The action is tops.
Nice one.
Very nice moment. The OOF LLC is pretty distracting. I’d probably look at options on that. The rest of the stuff you mentioned doesn’t bother me at all. I do with the image wasn’t so tight in the frame. More environment would be a bonus.
Amazing behavior capture! I have to agree with others on the out of focus lower left. Not your issue, but I wish the red-necked phalarope stood out more. I do like the white feathers which I think help to tell the story and set the location as this is where it just happened vs. the falcon having taken the prey to another location before enjoying its meal. To my eye, the red muted flowers are pleasing in this scene as well.
Excellent crop, behavior, and action. The IQ is quite good for D500. I am also distracted by the OOF LLC, Perhaps some very careful use of the spot healing brush or healing brush tool could bring it all into focus. I like the color and the BG works well in that it mirrors the perch area. IQ reminds me of falcon shots posted by Arash Hazeghi last year.
OOF FG annoys the heck out of me in my photos, too. I have seen photos that are successful to make use of it as compositional elements. Sometimes it’s the lesser of two evils for me; in this case, if I go higher, I might be able to get the FG more in focus (but this is f/4 and I was limited by the light already, so I am not even sure about that)but I think I will lose that almost “eye level” contact with the bird.
Ah yes, that was my hesitation in processing this image, too, Keith. I agree with you, more habitat will look nice especially as @Keith_Flood mentioned, the flowers are quite nice. Unfortunately, this was almost full frame, I already need to extend the canvas to make a slight rotation to level. Next time! BTW, I took this when Kristin and Doug Brown came over last year. I just learned that you lead the Bosque trip with Doug. What a small world!
I really think D500 is quite an underrated camera when it comes to IQ, David. Quite versatile for both landscape and wildlife in my opinion.
I think that you did OK with this one. The OOF foreground is a distraction, but you might be able to edit this out with Photoshop. Good pose and worth taking the shot…Jim
I think your presentation as-posted works well, Adhika. Yes, it would be really cool if the out of focus foreground were in focus, but I don’t find it very distracting. I love the pose of the youngster.
Adhika, I think you did a wonderful job nabbing this shot, as the youngster did in nabbing the catch from mom. I can image the siblings not being happy that they didn’t get any of the dinner.
Stunning action shot, I really like it. The LHC is a bit distracting, but not a huge deal - however Keith’s suggestion to look for some creative alternatives could be worth giving a try ! Cheers, Hans
