Swainson's Hawk

[DarrenMcKenna]

a mating pair of Swainson's

40D 500mm L IS +1.4x
Focal Length: 700.0 mm
Shutter Speed: 1/1250Sec.
Aperture Value: F7.1
Metering Modes: Evaluative metering
ISO Speed: 400
Manual Exposure
1 handheld from car
thanks for looking

[Raymond Barlow]

always great to great a pair of hawks, very well done Darren.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

You did great to capture two together Darren and eye contact with both. The angle is a tad steep and a little more contrast would really make this pop. thanks for sharing.

[Doug Brown]

Great sharpness and a handsome pair of birds! Definitely needs a contrast boost. Thanks for posting!

[John Chardine]

Very nice. I would have cropped a bit more from the right hand side and added more to the left if possible. Curves or Levels would make a big difference (contrast).

[Leroy Laverman]

At first I though the color space was incorrect as it has the look of images saved in Adobe RGB and displayed on browsers that ignore the color space. Try USM (amount 12, radius 150, threshold 0). You may need to the setting some for the full size image but it makes this nice capture pop. ... It's nice you have a pair so nicely posed together.

[Lance Peters]

Agree with the tweaks mentioned - Nice one.

lance

[DarrenMcKenna]

At first I though the color space was incorrect as it has the look of images saved in Adobe RGB and displayed on browsers that ignore the color space. Try USM (amount 12, radius 150, threshold 0).

I haven't used USM since CS2 came out, I use smart sharpen now. Amount:100 Radius: 0.2 Remove: lens blur.
I always use SRGB and not Adobe.

[DarrenMcKenna]

Great sharpness and a handsome pair of birds! Definitely needs a contrast boost. Thanks for posting!

Thanks Doug, I just don't like so much contrast, must be my eyes, but I like the "lighter" effect of less contrast.

[Leroy Laverman]

I haven't used USM since CS2 came out, I use smart sharpen now. Amount:100 Radius: 0.2 Remove: lens blur.
I always use SRGB and not Adobe.

With the settings I listed above you won't actually be sharpening the image but increasing the color saturation slightly for an effect that increases the contrast locally. See repost here.

[Maxis Gamez]

This image suffer from several aspects. Needs more contrast, the BG is busy and distracting and the hawks looks to centered in the frame. However, you did well keeping both sharp.