Red Tailed Hawk

[David N Smith]

I got this picture of a Red Tailed Hawk this afternoon. I know it is a little soft at 100% but I am wondering if it is too dark? This is one of the first I have tried OTW and am impressed with some of the shots I have seen on this forum so I will continue to work on my technique. Any critique would be welcome as I am wanting to improve.
Camera: Canon 60D
Lens: Tamron SP 70-300 @ 300mm
Exposure: 1/500 sec @ f/8 ISO 125
HH, cropped about 66%
PP: some lighting with fill light and sharpened with Hi-pass filter in PS CS5
Evaluative metering and single center point focus.

Thanks for viewing

David

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi David, nice job on the flight capture - good panning technique and steady hand. I have to question your settings here, as the ISO is very low and cost you dearly in terms of shutter speed. When shooting BIF hand-held it is best to use a higher ISO, like 400. You could have gotten a sharper capture with a SS of 1/1000 or more. The pose is excellent and the sky is nicely exposed. With back-lit birds like this you need to boost the shadow areas in post. I see that you have Photoshop; you can use a curves or levels adjustment to lighten the dark shadows on the under-wing area. The crop seems a little tight to me, as this is a big bird and could use more space in the sky. Keep working on you BIF skills, you are doing really well!

[David N Smith]

Thanks for your comments Kerry. The settings are my custom setting that I use for wildlife and the 1/500 sec setting I use because I usually shoot wildlife late in the afternoon or early morning and I have my ISO set to auto so this keeps the SS fast enough for my 300mm lens. I will either change my custom setting to 1/1000 or try to remember to change it when shooting BIF. Here is a shot with a levels correction and a looser crop. Is this more of what you were thinking of?

Dave

[Bob Miller]

david...You have captured a nice pose here but the sharpness needs improvement. As Kerry has recommended i would shoot BIF at ISO 400 or more to get your shutter speed up. I shoot alot of bif and have found that I need at at leat 1/1250 to 1/1600 to get a really sharp image. Also when you crop more than 30-40% you lose alot of image quality. Kerry gives excellent advice regarding processing. This image is not bad for just starting out.....keep shooting and improvement will come.Hope to see more of your work!

[David N Smith]

Bob, thanks for your reply. I will definately up my SS to 1000+ per your and Kerry's recommendations.

David