Red-tail Stare

[Richard Stern]

A Red-tailed Hawk in trees at the edge of a local frozen lake today. The first day for a few weeks without gloom, snow flurries, freezing rain, gray skies and high winds.

D7000, 300 F/4 AF-S + 1.7TC. Hand-held. 1/2500, f/6.7. ISO800.

Minor crop. Curves, selective sharpening and NR in LR4, then some BG blurring and removal of at least some of the twigs and branches in PSE.

All comments welcome.

Richard

[Karl Egressy]

Nice plumage this bird has. It is different from the ones he have around here, it is more patterned. I like the pose and the stare, Richard. I would try to darken (linear blur) the perch and the whites in the bird.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Richard you have a good capture but I think the image is overexposed by by quite a bit, maybe consider going to the raw file to check the conversion?

[Richard Stern]

Thanks for the 2 comments. The light was quite harsh, being mid-afternoon, and that might partially explain the bright whites - but I have tried a re-post anyway - went back to the raw file, and adjusted the tone curve better (I hope!), but this time didn't try and clone out the twigs. Any better?

Richard

[shane shacaluga]

I much prefer this second post. The twigs are not ideal but thats easy to fix.

Did you AF or manual as thinking of getting this same TC. Am using exactly the same camera and lens but with the 1.4tc

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

Thanks for the comment. I auto-focus with the 1.7, but it does tend to focus slower than the 1.4, and hunts more, so sometimes I have to roughly manual focus and then apply auto-focus for accuracy (I wear bifocals and always find that the camera's auto-focus is more accurate than my attempts at manual). Makes it a bit harder for BIFs.

Richard

[PhilCook]

Repost has addressed the whites better and like his intense stare....but I'd be inclined to either remove the twigs around the head, or even easier just apply more blur to them so they don't stand out quite so boldly

[Loi Nguyen]

Wow, amazing that he let you come that close. Love the details and the sharpness. Repost is better.

[Arthur Morris]

Richard, I am surprised that nobody has mentioned that the face and the feathers look very crunchy, either over-sharpened or too much NIL Detail Extractor... Can you post the original converted with no adjustments and no processing? (The embedded JPEG unsharpened and sized for BPN would be great if you know how to get it. I do like the stare.

[Richard Stern]

Hi Artie,

Actually I'm at Halifax Airport on my way south, so I can't post that now - although I could when I come back if you want. Hopefully I'll have some new pictures in better light!

Thanks for the comment and interest. Richard