Red Shouldered Hawks - Monotone

[Linwood Ferguson]

http://captivephotons.com/Nature/Other-Nature-Areas/Red-Shouldered-Hawk/869010890_TR2Bv-XL.jpg

This shot came as I was packing up. I had been shooting (without much success) a pair of birds harassing a hawk when a second hawk arrived. I grabbed a couple of shots quickly before even zooming in, then they were both gone. This is a very tiny crop (8% of the frame!) that does not hold up well, but I liked the pose. Since it did not hold up to enlargement, I tried monoton with sepia tint, and some higher contrast to (hopefully) mask that lack of resolution a bit.

If you care to see the full resolution (which is not much bigger) it is here. (http://captivephotons.com/Nature/Other-Nature-Areas/Red-Shouldered-Hawk/869010890_TR2Bv-O.jpg)

The shot was with a D300, 200-400 @ 200, 1/1250 @ f8, ISO 200, cloudy with the sun very high and to my right (i.e. not good either).

Does the treatment work? Does it salvage it away from pixel dearth?

Incidentally (and you might not be able to tell without real colors), is that a juvenile or female with the wings out? (Natural color shot is here (http://captivephotons.com/Nature/Other-Nature-Areas/4308820_2rrxq#869011170_uqsyr) - well, almost natural, the blue is painted in over bright white clouds)

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Many possibilities here, I like the birds tall in a vert frame - might crop some off the top. Might try to add light to eyes, possibly a catchlight as well. Artie, has a thread in the Tutorial & Education Forum regarding this process.

I like the sepia treatment, they look regal and the image captures my attention - well done. Let's see what others say might be an opportunity to repost - TFS.

[Dave Mills]

Hi, Considering what you were dealing with I feel you did a pretty good job. IMO the pairs positioning appear to work well with them fixed on something. You've managed to capture pretty good detail but I would crop about half the blank area on the top.
One thing that might help the image is lightening the areas around the eyes. They tend to look like black holes.
I like the sepia effect and don't see much noise.

[Lance Peters]

Handled well for such a large crop - the treatment does salvage from the large crop - would be hesitant to crop much more though.
As mentioned above a catchlight added to the eye's would further improve.
Think this might have worked as a horizontal as well with a bit more space for them to look into.
Good show ;)

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Anothe vote for some catchlights, otherwise great image; sharp, love the toning, and comp.

[Mark Young]

The sepia looks very nice, but I also like the colours and look of the original.