This immature African harrier hawk was foraging in a tree above the hide for ages and then decided to settle on a dead tree in the water in front of the hide.
This is full frame - Decided to leave it as is although there a few variations possible. I wanted to leave the whole branch in.
Canon 1D MK 4, Canon 300 f2.8 + 2 x extender MKIII
LR - Basics
PSE
There was a colour cast in BG so I removed that and then used NR on it.
Levels, USM on bird, sized and sharpened for web.
Pretty bird and I love the wood perch textures too.
like the comp how it is.
there is a nice highlight in the eye that I might brighten up or enhance a bit just to get a bit more focus on the character. Think it may also decrease the whiteness on the head a bit too if they eye got sharper.
I really like this. The color palette is lovely. terrific BG and perch.
I like the lines created by the perch. It balances the image well.
I would back off on the sharpening a bit in the the tail area.
Gail
This is a beautiful shot...I, too, like the perch and the background. The color and detail of the feathers are also very rich. The whites in the head seem a little blown to me....if it were mine, I would try to move the highlight slider in LR to the left a bit to bring back some of the white highlights (while, hopefully, still preserving the highlights in the rest of the bird).
Carl, very nice full frame image in good light and BG. The white on the head looks blown to me too. I'd try to restore the details there and selectively brighten the eye. Loi
Beautiful bird, well captured. The background is perfectly controlled. Interesting perch with nice features/tones. Compositionally, I could envision a tighter crop that would focus on the direction that the harrier is staring, and not give so much prominence to the where the perch ends on the right hand side. So consider playing around with a crop off the right (and top to stay close to the same aspect ratio as presented). BTW, imo, this image is plenty solid enough to post in the avian forums.
Ditto everything that has been said above Carl, it is cracker of an image. I so wish it was mine. Well done! The one thing I am not sure of is you left to much space above the head.
African Harrierhawk imm
