Female Sparrowhawk

[Ivan Ellison]

Another visitor to my garden feeders this morning.She left empty taloned.Think this is a juv. from this year. Hope to get plenty more as the winter draws in and the feeders get busier.
This was a grab shot through the rear windows of the house- not cleaned for a couple of weeks- the rig was set up from a trip I made to get a Pallas's warbler and was not really ideal for the bird. I only managed 6 shots before she flew off.
The pic has been cropped to off centre the bird and I didn't have much space due to the 2x converter being left on.
Processed in ACR, decreased the exposure and darkened the image slightly. Touch of sharpening and NR to whole pic increase the colour saturation by 1.. Then sharpened the bird again twice in PSE 10, once before and once after sizing for the web. Blur tool used over the BG to smudge any noise showing in dark areas. Not much else done to it.
Canon 1D mk IV
Canon 500 f4 is + 2x conv= 1000mm
ISO 1000- set from previous day and no time to reduce.
1/640 sec , f8
Handheld through kitchen window.

[gail bisson]

She looks surprised!
Nice BG. Nice sidelight.
I would crop out the plant on the right and rotate the image clockwise.
One always wishes for a natural perch but not a deal breaker,
Gail

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Very nice! I agree with Gail's comments and would add noise reduction to the bg. Otherwise, nice pose and stare from the hawk.

[Satish Ranadive]

Ivan:
Excellent image.Very nice pose,colors and lights.I like the backdrop too.
For this particular pose of sparrowhawk; I would go for vertical composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Doug Brown]

I like the way the bird stands out against the dark BG. I would bring down the brightness of the eye a bit. Pretty good image quality for 1000mm; which versions do you have of the lens and the TC? I ask because the older ones get sharper when stopped down. The new ones look great wide open.

[Ivan Ellison]

Doug, I have the mk 1 version of the 500 f4 is and the mk 11 version of the 1.4 and 2 x converters. The 2x was left on by mistake for this shot , I normally have the 1.4 on as a matter of course but had been taking a pallas's warbler at distance and left all my settings x mistake for this grab shot.