Juvenile Cooper's Hawk on a Windy Morning

[Bill Dix]

Captured at Chincoteague NWR a few weeks ago. The wind was blowing hard, and I like the resulting wind-blown plumage. I waited for a take-off; but wind and sun direction didn't cooperate, and of course he went the wrong way.

D500, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 640, 1/3200s @ f/7.1 manual.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice find Bill, handsome hawk and nice light on him too. Love the chest fathers sticking out. I wish you had a better HA though, the smaller branches make the shot a bit cluttered I'd get rid of them, especially the one crossing the talons. the plumage doesn't look tack sharp to my eye, I might sharpen it a tad more

TFS

[David Salem]

Nice capture of this windswept juvie Coppers hawk. I like the pose and I don't mind the looking sideways HA. The twigs don't add much, but aren't a heavy eye sore. Maybe a hare more sharpening but otherwise a nice capture of a very elusive raptor to get good images of. Well done

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Arash and David. Thanks for your comments. In this repost I've sharpened the body a bit, which helps. But it still doesn't feel quite "tack sharp". This was the first outing with my new D500, and in this and a number of other images it appears to me that with the 500 + 1.4 TC it is forward-focusing. In the RAW file, the sharpest part seems to be the few bits of raised bark below the talons (I unsharpened them in the posted version so they wouldn't compete); but the focus point is on the head according to Capture NX-D. I recall that Arash is not a fan of AF fine-tuning, but when I got home I set up my fine-tune protocol and it seemed to confirm my suspicions; a +14 seems to be giving the best result. I haven't had suitable subjects or weather conditions to confirm this in the field.

I personally don't mind the HA. I've removed a few small twigs, but I rather like the talon draped over one of them, so I left it.

[Mike Poole]

These are often the type of shots on offer on our side of the pond, so the windswept look appeals to me. I like the look back pose, good advice from David and Arash, hope you get some more opportunities, especially in light like this,

Mike

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks Arash and David. Thanks for your comments. In this repost I've sharpened the body a bit, which helps. But it still doesn't feel quite "tack sharp". This was the first outing with my new D500, and in this and a number of other images it appears to me that with the 500 + 1.4 TC it is forward-focusing. In the RAW file, the sharpest part seems to be the few bits of raised bark below the talons (I unsharpened them in the posted version so they wouldn't compete); but the focus point is on the head according to Capture NX-D. I recall that Arash is not a fan of AF fine-tuning, but when I got home I set up my fine-tune protocol and it seemed to confirm my suspicions; a +14 seems to be giving the best result. I haven't had suitable subjects or weather conditions to confirm this in the field.

I personally don't mind the HA. I've removed a few small twigs, but I rather like the talon draped over one of them, so I left it.

Hi Bill, AF fine tuning is usually not the reason why an image is soft, but if your rig does have a consistent focus shift (a value of 14 seems quite high and certainly makes a difference ) then it can surely help. I have heard good things about D500 AF so I am sure you'll get it to work.

good luck

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Like the wind swept look, Bill. Personally I prefer the original post. Seems there's an added contrast possibly due to sharpening in the repost. Like the head angle in the direction of the wind swept feathers.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[annmpacheco]

Nice repost Bill, sweet juvie and the wind swept feathers and bright eye really make this for me.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks again, everyone.