Red Tailed Hawk in Flight - Need Advice on Manual Exposure

[Loi Nguyen]

I have been playing with Manual exposure. This shot was taken at 4:21PM, about 1 hour before sunset in Southern California. I took a meter reading off a low sky opposite the sun. It was about the sunny 16 rule, 1/3200, f5.6, ISO 400. Then I opened up 2 clicks (2/3 EV) for the bird.

1DX
500f4 II + 1.4X III
1/2000
f5.6
ISO-400
Tripod.
The image was cropped quite a bit. W = 20%, H = 40% of original.

Please comment on whether I got the correct exposure by doing the above.

This image, incidentally, may be my best RTH to date in terms of the quality of the light and exposure.

Thank you

Loi

[MohsenVahedipour]

Excellent dorsal pose, wings position & HA. TFS

[David Salem]

Nice banking shot showing the dorsal well. Lit perfectly and nice exposure and detail. No shadows and perfect HA make for a great capture. Well done Loi. Where in So Cal are you?

[PhilCook]

Cant see anything wrong with this exposure, very well executed, color and light is excellent as is the intense eye contact...wish it were my shot

[shane shacaluga]

Lovely shot! Exposure looks good to me too!

[Jon Swanson]

I think the exposure looks fine. I love the eye contact and spread wing on the subject. Beauty of a capture!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Exposure is indeed looking good, how was it in-camera? With a dark bird against the sky you will need to open up so you did what was needed. Nice head angle, wingspread, comp.

[Loi Nguyen]

Exposure is indeed looking good, how was it in-camera? With a dark bird against the sky you will need to open up so you did what was needed. Nice head angle, wingspread, comp.

Daniel, thank you. Looks good in camera. I only did minimal PP to show more details in the shadow of the right wing, applied Punch in LR, sharpened, and cropped.

[Loi Nguyen]

Nice banking shot showing the dorsal well. Lit perfectly and nice exposure and detail. No shadows and perfect HA make for a great capture. Well done Loi. Where in So Cal are you?

Thank you David. I'm in Thousand Oaks, CA, a couple of hours drive from you.

[yogesh_puranik]

Hi Loi,

Nice wingspread, HA, & sharpness exposure..every thing looks good..i am staying in Long Beach, CA. where exactly you have taken this?
If possible, ping me..we can have some outings together..i am new in this area..