Red-shouldered Hawk

[Joseph Przybyla]

Dottie and I went out yesterday morning to Circle B Bar Reserve. We were looking for a couple of reported Barred Owls, didn't find the owls but found this hawk. To get the proper exposure of the hawk I had to allow the bright areas to blow out. I tried fixing them in post processing but I did not like the way it looked. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/500 F/5.6 Matrix Metering 0 EV ISO 1250 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition

[gail bisson]

I really like the way the moss frames the bird on the LHS and bottom of the frame.
Good POV on this fellow!
I wouldn't bother trying to recover the blown-out sky as there are no details to be found there anyway.
Looks like your critical focus point was on the feet and legs. The legs and feet appear tack sharp but the head seems to have fallen out of the DOF a bit.
This is a minor issue and certainly not a deal-breaker.
Enjoyed viewing this,
Gail

[keith mitchell]

Joe I really do think this is a great shot, afraid my eyes are not as good as Gail's but it looks sharp enough to me from beak to feet, very much like the way the moss frames the bird, wish it was mine.

Keith,

[Karl Egressy]

Nice pose and framed well with lichen, Joe.

[William Dickson]

Lovely image Joe. Bird showing great details as is the moss, framing it perfectly. Great capture

Will

[Marina Scarr]

You did a good job on a tricky exposure. I like the trailing spanish moss on the left. As Gail said, no need to recover details in the whites of the sky b/c there are no details there. Agree your critical focus is on the bird's legs b/c the head doesn't look quite as sharp as I would like it to.

[David Salem]

That's exactly the way the lights are going to look if you expose for the bird properly, so just as Gail and Marina mentioned, there isn't anything to fix in that department. The rest looks good and I think if you lassoed just the head and did another round of sharpening it would add to the image. Well done

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, you have a lot more depth & detail in this compared to the owls, so it looks like you have upped your game in both shooting and PP, well done. Nice detail, pose & framing, the only thing I would do is apply a bit more exposure (darker) towards the foot of the image, as it reduces the slight contrast and balances out more the branch & lichen.

TFS
Steve

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

You managed the exposure very well Joe! Well done.
Agree about slight focus issue, but maybe you could selectively sharpen just the head.
Nice environment around the hawk.
Thanks for sharing.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing, commenting, and suggesting improvements. I checked the active focus point and it was on the birds neck and eye. The only thing I can come up with is that the leg scales have sharp edges and maybe sharpened more. Using the Adjustment Brush is Lightroom I selectively sharpen the head. Thanks again for helping.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, details, setting and composition. The moss reminds me of my days camping at Hopkins Prairie and Paynes Prairie in your beautiful state. Well done Joe.