Red Tail in flight

[dankearl]

Taken yesterday, Ridgefield NWR, Washington state.

1/2000
f5
iso400
400mm (300f2.8 w/ 1.4)
Nikon D7000

DSC_8697nx2.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=109303&stc=1&d=1330288144)

[arash_hazeghi]

cool! nice exposure and good pose the head came out a bit soft though

[Don Nelson]

Nice one, Dan!
Looks like the sharpest plane of focus cuts through the talons and rear wing. Have you checked for back focus? Have you microaligned the camera and lens/Tc?
If this were mine, I'd get rid of the yellow weed cutting through the talons.
Good catch!

[gail bisson]

Don took the words right out of my mouth!
Gail

[dankearl]

Don, I think the lens is fine.
I almost did a self critique when I posted as I knew I missed the focus on the head, but I liked the shot with the habitat anyway.
I was too close really, this is almost full frame at 420mm (about 40 feet away) and at F5, I didn't have a lot of room for error.
I need a lot of work on my BIF shots, Arash needs to hold a class!

[Don Nelson]

OK on lens -- always have the eyes in focus
The other thing I just noticed in a larger view -- you have apparent sharpening artifacts in the leading edge of the bird -- particularly on the left side (our left side; bird's right.)
Did you mask/darken the background or are these from sharpening
Doug teaches an excellent flight workshop -- along with JIm Neiger. You'll learn a lot.

I can't fix the sharpening artifact around the wings, but this is a bit sharpened/detail extractor/weed removed, as example. You'll do better with the raw.
109307

[dankearl]

Don, I agree about the artifacts, I sharpened the compressed jpeg a bit more than normal to try and get the head as sharp as possible.
Nice repost, I should have removed the grass, I try to do as little erasing as possible on my images, although I agree it looks better.
Thanks for taking the time.

Dan

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely flight capture and I really like the environment. Don's repost addresses the issue of the softness in the head and really makes it pop.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice take off pose and the inclusion of the habitat makes it a great picture, Dan.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, good flying angle, and I like how the red tail is low flying over the top of the foliage. I like what Don has done.