Red Tail Studio Portrait

[dankearl]

If the studio was on a fencepost!
Almost full frame, a very tame wild hawk!

1/1000, iso640, f8, D800, 600mm, HH

DSC_4999bp.jpg

[Don Nelson]

Nice one - reminds me of a redtail at Ridgefield.
could use some sharpening, and the whites on the breast are very hot.


here's what a Color Efex 2 TC(11%) and DE (9%) will do for sharpening, but no additional sharpening applied (can't correct for hot whites though)

[Diane Miller]

I love the soft colors of the BG and the sharpness and pose of the bird.

Agree about wanting a little more detail in the whites.

[dankearl]

Don,
thanks for your response.
Yes, this is the Ridgefield hawk, taken last weekend, he never leaves!
I do not think the whites were hot at all, in fact, I cannot tell the difference between your repost and my OP at all.
The sharpness looks the same, and the whites look no different.
Diane's comment puzzles me also, the whites look fine to me and I think there is detail there.
I just upgraded computers, a new 27 inch Mac, the image looks exposed properly and fine on my monitor.

[Don Nelson]

Dan
I cannot repair your nearly blown whites. The numbers posted were on your original image imported into CS6.
You can tell the difference in apparent sharpness by looking at the feather details in the whites. Note that I did NOT sharpen, just apply some Nik Color Efex 4
See any difference? Original is on left

[Don Nelson]

And here's just a little bit of sharpening applied -- 40/0.3, Luminosity, Faded filter back to 70%
this one not masked, but should be for background and areas on the lower chest that now appear over sharpened....

[dankearl]

Don,
the sharpening on the last image is noticeable but barely perceptible and I am looking at the highest tech monitor available today.
The whites still look fine on my OP, yours just look darkened and muddy.
Thanks for taking the time, I appreciate it, but I don't really think it is an improvement.

[Robert Holguin]

Excellent close up shot.
The feather detail is amazing, great pose, wonderful background, and terrific light.
Whites look good to me on the OP as does the sharpness.
The one on a pane #6 looks oversharpened to me.
Very well done.

[vishaljadhav]

Dan,
I love the Portrait , the bg makes it stand out .
I am watching it on a Mac monitor here, in case the hawk has pure white feathers there then your OP is looking perfectly all right to me.
in terms of sharpening too, i find it nice as feathers need to look a bit soft as they are feathers.
Lovely one , i completely like the way its presented.

Don,
IMHO, the feathers in the Pane 6 on the breast look over sharpened to my eye, i have always seen raptors having soft feathers there . however this is just as it appears to my eye and not a rule.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent portrait shot, Dan. It must be a young bird based on the pattern. I don's seem to notice any blown whites on my monitor.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent portrait of hawk.Love the colors,IQ,nice BG and composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[gail bisson]

Hi Dan,
Is this full frame? If yes, that is one tame bird!
I must confess that the whites look fine to me.
Love the graduated BG colors and the composition.
I do agree with doing a little bit of sharpening on the head in the OP but still a very nice shot- with or without tweaks,
Gail

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Its must feel great to have such a cooperative raptor...something I never get to experience here. Red-tails, although common, are extremely skittish here.

Very nice portrait Dan. BG, comp., soft feathers...looks good to me. agree with Gail...If mine, I'd have done some more sharpening on the face but not much....base image is excellent.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Dan, whites look no where near blown to me either. But I suspect the issue here is that you did not embed a color profile in your image. (An educated guess - will have to confirm when I have access to my home machine)
If Don's photoshop defaults to a different color space, and if an untagged image is opened, photoshop will shift your colors to his color space, which could explain what Don is seeing.
It's best to save as sRGB and embed the color profile in the image.

To your image. Amazing to have such an approachable raptor.
Soft light and nice pose. I'd darken the mid-tones just a touch and apply just a hair of sharpening as Gail recommended.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

My "educated" guess was completely wrong :)
The image has an sRGB profile embedded. And indeed there is just a little bit of clipping if you check in photoshop - although visually it didn't appear so!