Red-tailed Hawk

[Karl Egressy]

I was heading to Burlington early afternoon. The light was great.
By the time we got to the shooting place, the light got very dull.
What you see in the background is the snow and white sky I believe, overexposed at around two stops under cloudy condition.
I did it to get the bird right and managed to push the histogram to the extreme right to avoid noise at ISO 1600.
I removed soeme way OOF vegetation from mostly around the right wing.
Thanks for looking.

Canon 1D MIV
Canon 500 f4.0 L IS ( I wished for the 300 f2.8 but I left it home)
Manual Exposure
1/1600 s
ISO 1600



f4.0 (fully open)
Hand held

Could someone please edit the title. I made a mistake and now I can't fix it.

[Karl Egressy]

For your info here is the original full frame jpeg version.

[David Salem]

Nice high key shot of this incoming Redtail hawk. Nice pose and Good job on the PP work with the contrast and saturation looking good, nice to see the original.
Maybe clone out the only branch below the hawk and the smudge between the primaries on the rt wing.
Well done.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Karl, well done on the exposure here, and I like how you have brought out the RTH in post. Great show of the wingspan and fanned tail, and the added space on top has worked out well. I agree with David, the single strand at the bottom can disappear.

What is wrong with your title that you need corrected?

[Robert Holguin]

Terrific shot!!!
Love the head on flight angle, excellent IQ, exposed very well, and great comp.
Agree on removing the strand of grass.
Well done.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great capture on comparing the jpeg to your capture I would consider a little less contrast I get the impression the dark areas are a little too dark, this may just be me, you were there I wasn't

[gail bisson]

I see you are still having lots of fun with your "pet " redtailed hawk!
Great head on shot. This shows the red tail beautifully.Excellent IQ
Agree re: cloning out the single blade of grass on the bottom.
I would brighten the head area a smidge.
Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Thank you Jonathan, Stuart, Gail, Robert and David. I corrected most what was suggested. I think it looks better now.
Stuart, it looks like I managed to fix the title after all. Thanks for asking.

[Bill Dix]

Excellent shot, Karl. Great job on the exposure, PP work, AF on a tough incoming shot, and not clipping any primaries. Repost addresses the nits. A fine image.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Nice incoming shot Karl. I like the final repost but I also like the bg as it was originally which allowed the viewer to see that the bird is low to the snowy ground instead of high in the sky.

[Raymond Lee]

The repost looks great! Wish there's some catchlights in the eye (I would recover them IF there's any).