Perched Red-tailed Hawk

[Richard Stern]

A recent image near my home. I couldn't get a sharp image with the bill sticking out farther to the left, which would have been nice. I thought this crop was OK, and I hope it's not over-sharpened. D300, Tamron 200-500, hand-held, jpeg fine, AF-S, ISO 1000, 1/1000 f6.3. Is the sky boring? Any other comments?

Richard

[George DeCamp]

Hey Richard.

A pretty bird and the pose is not too bad. I think you over processed this though somehow. Is it a big crop?? Looks like the detail was lost somehow and your equipment is too good for that.

[Richard Stern]

Thanks for the comment. On reflection I agree that I tried too hard to process the image correctly and over-did it. Here's a version that has been cropped less and post-processed more subtly. I hope you feel it's better, and any other comments appreciated.

Richard

[LeeOtsubo]

Hi Richard,
I think the only issue with your first image was oversharpening. I would just bring up the first image in PSE3 and dial back USM assuming that's what you used. This 2nd try is too soft, IMO.

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

Oh well - at least somewhere between the 2 images will be OK! I'll experiment with the sharpening, but I won't repost this image. But this type of discussion is a good learning experience for newbies like me.

Richard

[Alfred Forns]

I think Lee is right on the money The USM can bite you

Sharpening is not all that easy Once you get the hang of it will be fine You do have one alternative Use Photokit sharpening I use it and like it

It will allow you to sharpen some when you bring the image into PS the first time, then you can do selective sharpening/smoothing and finally output sharpening There are settings for different resolutions and applications For printing the correct sharpening is going to look over done but the print comes out great Not sure if they have a trial download but might want to take a look Used to be very expensive but I think its around $99 currently

[Judd Patterson]

Hey Richard, the reposted image does look better but as Lee mentions, there is a lack of detail in the feathers. Did you apply a lot of noise reduction on the image? It can be very easy to overdue noise reduction which can remove all the fine detail. My suggestion is to only noise reduce the background and to leave the bird alone unless it was really bad. That's some lovely light you had there. Any way to get over to the left side and get the entire bird in the golden light? Nice work!