Swainson Hawk

[Keith McHugh]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4604499907_f963ebb15e_b.jpg

Nikon D80
300mm lens
f/5.6 @ 1/400


Framing? Clarity? Actual Action? How does the color work for you all?

[Ben Harris]

From a noob, fro what it's worth, I like it.

The left leg seems slightly blown. I love the pose. Could use a little finer detail. The color on my uncalibrated monitor looks good.

The clouds seem... processed. They don't work for me. I don't know if you'd want to alter that much of the photo, though.

Is this a tight crop?

[Harold Davis]

keith, i did a quick redo of it. i like the pose. just a little shadow and highlight adjustment, color balance, desat the sky and added a little more detail to the bird. nice base image. did the best you could in that tough situation!!

[Ray Rozema]

Like the pose, the open bill and expression is great. the repost is a improvement Minor detail :would be nice if the wing tip was not hidden by the leaf overall very good.

Ray Rozema

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Keith Fine capture of a desirable bird !!!

Lots of good points and agree with you Ben, good call on the clouds looks like they were smoothed out? Also good call on the hidden wingtip form Ray, with these birds just keep working the till they fly away !!

Exposure wise it is under by one stop, did not see the exp comp, helpful if you list so we can give a better assessment. Any under exposure will lead to lot of noise. Can see the re post ... that detail should have been there with the original capture !!

I like the framing and action ! The sharpest area is around the leaves do try to place the focus point on the bird .. if on continuos focus can move the af point around !! Looking forward to the next one !!!

[Keith McHugh]

Thank you all for your comments. You are right about the exposure being low. Looking at the two images against one another really brings out the difference. I have the bad habit of darkening my images a bit too much post shoot. I guess my eye and brain see two different images. One in the field and one in the computer. Appreciate the advice.

[Lance Peters]

Thank you all for your comments. You are right about the exposure being low. Looking at the two images against one another really brings out the difference. I have the bad habit of darkening my images a bit too much post shoot. I guess my eye and brain see two different images. One in the field and one in the computer. Appreciate the advice.

Agree with all of the above - make sure to turn your over exposure blinkies on in camera and utilize your histogram whilst out in the field - oush your histogram to the right of centre - just dont want any flashing highlights on your subject - elsewhere is fine if creating a high key image.

Keep em coming.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Like the repost. Seems to be lacking in some fine detail. Did you do some NR? Nice BG and pose.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Keith, Great critique by Al that covered it. Repost helps the image somewhat...