Red-tailed in flight

[arash_hazeghi]

Red-tailed taking off.

http://www.stanford.edu/~ahazeghi/Photos/birds/hawk%20in%20flight%20bpn%207D.jpg

Canon 7D + 400 f/5.6 @ f/7.1 1/2000sec ISO 800. SW DPP 3.7

Hope you like it.

[Harshad Barve]

fine shot Arash ,
lovely wing and talon pose , expo and sharpness looks good , nice to see natural BG
TFS

[Bill McCrystyn]

Very nice image Arash. The 7D doesn't look like it lacks in pixel density - eh Roman? :) Very nice feather detail and sharp contrast to your BG. I am curious to know about how far you were from the target?

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks Bill, I was pretty close to the hawk maybe ~ 35 ft. and these are large birds, it is almost full frame.

[Bill McCrystyn]

Your killing me Arash. Is that a Redtail or a Red Shoulder Hawk?

[Kiran Khanzode]

Arash, beautiful frozen frame, but isn't the eye a bit overdone in PP ? Good to see your new 7D working out :-). Is this really a red-tail ? ...I don't see red :) on the tail and the eye is a bit different.

Here's a 100% crop of a red tail's natural eye with the 7D (no pp, no sharpening)

[arash_hazeghi]

Your killing me Arash. Is that a Redtail or a Red Shoulder Hawk?

Red-tailed

[arash_hazeghi]

Arash, beautiful frozen frame, but isn't the eye a bit overdone in PP ? Good to see your new 7D working out :-). Is this really a red-tail ? ...I don't see red :) on the tail and the eye is a bit different.

Here's a 100% crop of a red tail's eye (no pp, no sharpening)

Hi Kiran,

The above is an immature red-tailed hawk, the iris is yellow in immature hawks and red for mature hawks, the above shot has no post processing in in the eye, learn more about red-tailed hawk here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_Hawk)

Also, I have and had no problem tracking a large bird against sky, it is when tracking against foliage when the AF continues to fail, there were plenty of OOF shots in this sequence that I did not show. I did not say anything is working better now.

The crop is OK but not very sharp in my opinion and does not indicate anything special about the 7D.

Here is a 100% crop of a mature hawk with red iris straight from DPP taken with the old 20D and 300 f/4 IS

http://www.stanford.edu/~ahazeghi/Photos/examples/hawk_crop.jpg

[Kiran Khanzode]

Thx for the lovely info, could you pls post a 100% crop of the eye/surrounding area( no pp) for me to learn more about the real eye colors of a juv red tail. The ambient lighting does not really match the eyeball colors...imo. :-). I don't see a low sun, or direct lighting or catchlight in the eye to see that much brightness in the eye, that's all.

[Bonnie Block]

Beautiful image, Arash. Love the angle of flight--and the spread of the wings

[arash_hazeghi]

Thx for the lovely info, could you pls post a 100% crop of the eye/surrounding area( no pp) for me to learn more about the real eye colors of a juv red tail. The ambient lighting does not really match the eyeball colors...imo. :-). I don't see a low sun, or direct lighting or catchlight in the eye to see that much brightness in the eye, that's all.

Kiran

This is a 100% crop of the same hawk when perched right before flight which shows the eye better, yellow iris is highly visible in most lightning conditions, even in shade.
The above photo was made in early morning and the sun was low.


http://www.stanford.edu/~ahazeghi/Photos/examples/yellow_iris.jpg

[Kiran Khanzode]

ok, thank you, I did learn a lot though (it's a different image) ! My basic premise is...the eye is over PP'd....nothing else :)

[arash_hazeghi]

ok, thank you, I did learn a lot though (it's a different image) ! My basic premise is...the eye is over PP'd....nothing else :)

100% crop from original, after downsample, sharpen and contrast adjustment the eye will appear sharper than the surrounding feathers due to its bright color.

http://www.stanford.edu/~ahazeghi/Photos/birds/pupil.jpg

[Stu Bowie]

Arash, excellent detail captured, and I like the take off pose. Good colourful foliage in the BG too. Well captured.

[David Fletcher]

Super shot Arash. Like the take off pose and foliage. Thanks for the info too. Good to learn about differing birds.

[Bill McCrystyn]

Raptors eyes will display different contours. The Osprey is another good example. How the light hits the birds is key.

[Doug Brown]

Impressive capture against a varied BG.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks guys, what do you think about the crop, it is not 3:2 AR, did you notice? does it work here?

[Bill McCrystyn]

Are you saying a 3 to 2 angle ratio ?? All I know is for a full frame I don't know where else you would put it.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Sure I like it!

Great looking raptor, love the up wing and live BG. I prefer the 3:2 ratio, but that's just my taste.

[Dave Barnes]

I like the image and you PP seems to be great. I like the detail on the image as presented and the colour of the bird and BG. Works well together.
Arash I prefer a 2/3 frame ratio.