Juvie Northern Harrier #3

[gail bisson]

I was lying on my belly on the mudflats photographing shorebirds when 2 juvie northern harriers flew into the grasses 20 meters away from me. I was covered by my KwikCamo cover. They landed in the grasses and I remained motionless for 45 minutes while they preened and rested.I dared not move a muscle or remove my eye from the viewfinder because I knew the minute I did that they would fly away! The wind was right behind me so I knew I had a good flight shot if I just stayed patient. My shoulder muscles were screaming in agony and all I kept thinking was "don't screw this opportunity up!!"
Canon 1DX 600mm and 1.4 x
ISO 1000 1/3200 F 5.6
I processed this in DPP4 and in LR5 and added 5 points of saturation in LR5 and 0.5 in DPP4. Otherwise pretty much is the same. I am amazed by the difference in color..In CS5 I did NR on BG, levels and USM to JPEG and dodged the left eye.
Which version do you prefer? Image was taken around 6:00PM so the sun was low.
This OP is with DPP and the next post is with LR5.
Comments and critiques learned from and appreciated with thanks,
Gail

[gail bisson]

And this is with LR5 (crop is a bit different)

[Gabriela Plesea]

Fantastic capture Gail, IMO it was worth every minute of the agony:)

I really like the OP, love the colours and warmth there and the golden grass below adds so much to this frame.

In hindsight, do you think perhaps F 7.1 might have been a better choice?

Great eye contact and I like that "puzzled" expression from the subject, sharpness is there where it matters most. In terms of composition - again, the OP is my favourite. What a captivating view of this species in flight - congratulations!

Kind regards,

[Richard Gollar]

I like the photo edited in DPP4 more myself. Amazing photo either way its great. I am curious which one match the actual color better DPP4 or Lightroom?

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, love the eye contact and head turn in this, and overall tack sharp too. I do like the warm colours from the late light, together with the OOF grass BG.

Hope you went for physio afterwards.

[gail bisson]

I like the photo edited in DPP4 more myself. Amazing photo either way its great. I am curious which one match the actual color better DPP4 or Lightroom?

Thanks for commenting Richard. Much appreciated. I think the scene IRL is closer to the DPP4 version. I will process this without adding any saturation in DPP4 ( or maybe just add .2 instead of .4) and am sure this will perfectly reflect conditions as I saw it.
Gabriela- I stayed at 5.6 because I wanted as much SS as possible knowing the bird would be flying directly towards me. In my experience you need more shutter speed if bird is flying towards you than a side view shot.The bird is sharp throughout so I think I made the right choice.Thanks for commenting!

[Ross Taylor]

I like both versions much Gail. Not knowing the birds natural coloration makes it a bit difficult, however the end of day golden hues did not seem so prominent in the LR version, and DPP version seemed a bit saturated.

Could this be accounted for by the Camera Calibration profile in LR, perhaps saturation and/or white balance?

Thanks for sharing that birds approaching the camera need a quicker shutter speed! Noted :)

Ross

[William Dickson]

Your patience and stealth paid off Bigstyle. I like both. I think the detail on the head on the 1st image is better. But, Gail what a great image. Well done

Will

[Mike Poole]

Head on raptor shots are far from the easiest images to get - and thats before we consider the position of the shooter so full marks from me.

I prefer the first for both the tones and the crop. I like to see loose frames, but in the RP there is nothing extra in the frame of significance to me, and a strong feature of the shot is the quizziacal head angle, so tight is good here.

Mike

[Karl Egressy]

Great capture Gail. I like the second version.

[Grace Scalzo]

Gail, I just looked at the original post and my reaction was that the bird is much too orange. Then I saw the second and see what you are getting at. Where I live, the color in the second frame is much more true. That being said, this is a wonderful capture, mainly because of your low shooting angle and the look that the bird is giving you. I'm wondering about lifting the shadows on the underwings every so slightly. Congrats on this series, really some fine work.

[arash_hazeghi]

The first one has the correct plumage color for a young female harrier in evening light, they look rusty and saturated. The 2nd one is muted on my screen. I like the eye contact but wish the sun was behind you

TFS

BTW, this is an example of the plumage in a young bird, this is in stronger light so a bit more colorful



Attachment 156177

[Grace Scalzo]

Thank you for clearing that up Arash.

[Marina Scarr]

First frame works well for me. Like the hint of vegetation and the cocked head adds a lot of interest.

[Robert Kimbrell]

Congrats on such a nice image Gail. The processing of the first image is more pleasing to my eye. The inclusion of the grass adds so much here.