Peregrine Surprise

[Hal Everett]

I was driving through the Samish Flats in WA on a dark dreary day. As I rounded a turn, this bird was right in front of me on a low power line. I had to back up to frame it. I got off 9 shots, and this is the most intense. I will never get a better shot of a Peregrine, but am disappointed that it had to be on an ugly power line. Canon 7D, 800mmf5.6, 1/400th, f5.6, ISO 400, exposure compensation +3 1/3.

Hal

[Lance Peters]

Hi Hal - a big warm welcome to the BPN family. Never say Never - You just dont know!!!

Love the stare!! I think you could push the whites a bit further - looks a little dark on my screen - see that you were already at +3 1/3 - Love high key, also think some additional sharpening is in order - you could also lighten and sharpen the eye's a tad.
Made a couple of quick changes so you can see - pushed them a little too far so it shows easily the difference would wind em back a little when working on the original image.

Perch is not ideal - but hey thats were he was - pity that the wing tips are cut off - if you have any shots with them included it would be possible to recreate them and extend the canvas. Plenty of info in the educational resources forum.
Looking forward to seeing more :)

[Alfred Forns]

Big Warm welcome Hal !!!

It is an intense image and despite the cable a keeper in my book !!! .. this is one time you probably wished you had less focal length !!!

Compensation wise I'm confused, usually with anything just under three the sky will be totally blown out and this is just over three? Fully agree on cranking the exposure up like you did ! Exp was set in manual?

.. good re post Lance !!! Brighter looks better !!!

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Welcome to BPN, very nice first post.
Love the in the eye look and the fine feather details. Wish the wing tip didn't get cut off. The original image look a bit under, i wonder what's the histogram look like and what exposure method do you use (spot, center weight, average, etc)?

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Nice one, something in between the two works for me. Need more info on the metering mode and pattern. Like Al said +3.5 would usually be too much to off set sky opening up the meter? By the way, great shot and great lens. The OP does seem a tad under exposed, must have spot metered off a bright spot and +3.5 did not counter or it was set to manual mode; anyway welcome and thanks for sharing a great shot. Guess you need to carry a few extension tubes too (smile).

I do not mind the cable, its a perch to a hawk.

[Hal Everett]

Thank you all for your warm welcome, comments and advice. The camera was just out of the box and still on it's default "evaluative" metering, with shutter priority and spot auto-focus. The sky was actually DARK gray, so it is overexposed. The +3 1/3 exposed the birds well, but blew out the sky if it was any lighter than this. I followed your advice on the sharpening, eyes and whites on this next shot, which has almost all of the wing tips, but not quite the stare

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I like this image, so histogram is clippled on the right b/c of the sky?

OK - the sky was dark and the meter overexposed it, you added light to compensate. I am on work monitor, did any of the white feathers get blown too? If so there are many good articles in the education forum on recovering highlights.

Nice work, not sure if flash (BB) would have helped (subject distance w/high synch) and I know you were moving very fast - well done.