Caranculated caracaras

[Ilija Dukovski]

I got this pair with a great name, Carunculated caracaras, in Ecuador, near the volcano Cotopaxi last January.

Nikon D850, Nikkor 200-500mm @ 500mm, f/5.6 1/800s iso400
NR with Topaz

Let me know what you think.

Ilija

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Ilija, nice to see you back here and posting.

A great subject to photograph and I quite like the subjects overlapping, but looking in different directions. I particularly like the back of the bird with the plumage.

At ISO 400 you shouldn't need any NR, but overall the image does appear dark, especially in the darker/shadow areas. The 850 will deliver great detail so you might wish to look at opening/lifting the image up to puli that detail out, but then you might need some NR for those shadow areas. There is also quite a blue cast in the whites.

This isn't definitive, but just to illustrate my thinking, it may or mayn't help.

Hope to see more from the trip.

BTW you can post 1920px wide and 1600 px high now.

TFS

Steve

[Ilija Dukovski]

Thank you! I really missed the blue cast. In my guide the bird is shown with pale bluish gray. But it was super cloudy that day, so you are right, it is cast. I will redo the image. Thanks!

[Steve Kaluski]

In my guide the bird is shown with pale bluish gray.

That's fine Illija, as I said, it's not a 'definitive' RP, (it can't be from an sRGB file, plus I wasn't there at the time ), I just felt it can still be overcast/cloudy, but the overall, everything looked dark and the detail you captured could still come through.

Look forward to seeing any changes but hopefully in a larger format.

Cheers
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Ilja ... very cool looking Caracara species .
Overall a nice frame with the two birds facing the viewer . Cool to see the front and back plumage
Good details and sharp where it counts
FG looks interesting and the vegetation does not bother me .
Would agree with Steve about brightness and color

TFS Andreas

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Ilija,

I find there is something of the old "Audubon" print about this image - the way the two birds are posed to best show off the back of one and the front of the other. I think it looks great!

Clearly the lightening of Steve's repost shows how you can bring out much more of the colour and detail of these magnificent birds. Looking great!

Thanks for sharing.

Gerald

[Brian Sump]

Hi Ilja, cool look at this species in the native habitat. I've gotten to shoot Caracaras in the US in south Texas and always loved them.

The image as a whole appears very dark, so perhaps you could still adjust exp in post and retain the feel as ISO was low enough to avoid heavy noise.

Otherwise, seems nice and sharp. TFS.