Ferruginous Fluff

[david cramer]

A few months ago this hawk let me park near his perch while he hunted near sunset.

http://davidwcramer.smugmug.com/photos/469718668_rPDuv-O.jpg

D300 with 400mm 2.8 + 2.0tc, f/10, 1/1600, iso 800, ev -0.67 on BLUBB beanbag in car window.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi David,

Sharp, and a great pose and head angle. Thanks for the BLUBB mention <SMILE>

The only problem is the CYAN electric sky. For the repost I de-SAT-ed the BLUE and the CYAN but the jpeg got lumpy so I did a 6-peixel Gaussian blur on the BKGR and erased the edges of the bird that were affected.

ps: I also added Black to the White in Selective Color to tone down the breast.

[Doug Hitchcox]

Great shot, good call Artie with the BG but the repost looks like it needs a little some else on the bird... a little more contrast(?)

[david cramer]

Artie - you are spot on about the sky and chest. Thanks for the rework. As Doug pointed out, the hawk could use a little contrast boost, but also a little more saturation. I took some of the sat. out on parts of the bird (ie feet) as the dreaded red channel blew when converting to srgb for web. But a tad more would help it. Those feet should be yellowish.

Here's my rework. Took the tiff back into camera raw, where I could do global and local adjustments with the new adjustment brush (similar to what can be found in Lightroom 2 and Capture NX2). I left more blue in the sky. Is it still too electric?

http://davidwcramer.smugmug.com/photos/469839467_oYbXE-XL.jpg

[Arthur Morris]

Good job on the bird. The sky is a little too electric for my taste but just a smidge.