Late in the session and the sun was getting very low. A sliver of light was shining through between the two small hides. This female Marsh Harrier was feeding on some remains of the bait on the ground in front of the hide and from time to time would look up to check for rivals. And sometimes the shaft of light would catch her head and face. After a number of attempts I got a good head angle and the chiaroscuro effect I was looking for!
The image was made on the Sony A9II and FE200-600 lens with 1.4 Teleconverter for 840mm. Shutter speed 1/1600 sec at f/9.0, ISO 1250.
In Lightroom, starting with Adobe Standard profile, added some Exposure, brightened the whites and softened the blacks. I have applied the Enhance Denoise, then on the DNG file used a gradient mask to darken the lower left corner and used Color Picker to adjust the colour of the bird and the background to taste.
Then in PS, cleaned up the beak using the remove and clone tools ( just a yucky piece of chicken!). Resized for output and sharpened with USM.
I hope you like it! Comments and suggestions warmly appreciated!
Gerald