My first Red-Tailed Hawk

[David Bose]

I took this shot using a tripod while sitting in a blind over some old venison scraps. I was really trying to capture a Caracara I had been seeing. I was about to give up when a bunch of vultures came in, then within a few minutes about 5 Caracaras, then a Red-Shouldered hawk came in when all the sudden I heard the screech of this Red-Tailed hawk and everything else took off.


As you can see there is some environmental heat waves in the background. In retrospect, I'm guessing I may have been better off dropping my ISO to 200 as I didn't need 1/1600. What about the foreground grass? is it too sharp/distracting?

Lightroom adjustments: Cropped (original image size 5184 x 3456 cropped to 2590 x 2332), -7 contrast, +33 Whites, +7 Blacks, +12 Saturation and I think I warmed it up just a tad. There was zero noise reduction.
Photoshop: Used healing brush to eliminate a few very bright rocks in the background, slightly lightened the eye and removed the sun spot, and a little sharpening using the Shake Reduction Filter.

Rebel t2i
Aperture Priority
One-Shot AF with central focus point
Canon 400mm f/5.6
f/5.6
Exposure Compensation +2/3 (hoping to not loose the shadows...)
1/1600th
ISO 320

Thanks!

[Diane Miller]

A regal-looking beast! Nicely sharp and well-exposed. I don't mind the heat waves as long as they aren't impacting the bird's sharpness, which is hard to judge from a small JPEG. The sharpness of the FG grasses work fine for me, but they may indicate that the focus plane was in front of the bird a little. Did you select a single focus sensor and get it on the head?

I wouldn't mind a little more room bottom and right, if you have it.

Would love to see more from you!

[David Bose]

Yes, I was using the central focus point only and it was actually on the right side of the breast instead of the head like I should have so that would have brought the focus a bit forward. It caught me off guard and I was a little hurried. I remember thinking I felt it was far enough away that my DOF would be adequate.

Also, yes, I do have room behind the bird, as I did crop quit a bit.

Thank you for the kind words!

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi David! As Diane said.... "REGAL"! (and... ROCKIN'!) Also agree with her additional comments.... You may want to "clean up" the eye.... seems to be a bit of nictating membrane there. THANKS!

[David Bose]

Thanks Sandy, I'm assuming your talking above pupil? If so that actually was a large sun spot that I haphazardly tried to eliminate in Lightroom. Would I have been better to leave it alone or maybe use the clone tool in Photoshop to eliminate it? I'm completely new to PS, I've only had it a couple of weeks and still fumbling my way around.

[Sandy Witvoet]

I'm pretty new to PS too..... Just looks like there is some kind of "line" transecting, and yes just above the pupil.... other than that.... AWESOME!

[Diane Miller]

The eye has a low-contrast look, in the darks. The LR retouching brush isn't that precise and can require some experience. Cloning in PS is excellent and easier, with just a little practice. The main thing is to avoid picking up repeats.

The Spot Healing brush is a gift from the heavens, too.

I like to do any significant cloning or healing on a duplicate layer, so I have an out in case I mess up.