Thought I would have a go at the Red Tail Hawk and get this one posted.
Self critique: could have stopped down a little for better DOF, wings are dark, no eye contact, maybe cropped a bit tight...
However, this is a composite image and I like the way it turned out. The original sky was pure blue, which is pretty but a little boring. I comped in a sky from my collection of blank sky shots and this is the result. The bird is about a 50% crop from the original image.
Canon 50D ISO 200 1/1000 sec f/7.1
EF70-200mm f/2.8L + 1.4x TE @ 280mm
Converted from 15MP RAW in DPP then PS work
Good looking bird Kerry and PS work is very good !!!
The closer wing position is excellent only wish the other was not merging with the head but is a matter of luck ... or being able to fire 12 fps :)
I like the sharpness and timing for pressing the shutter, like seeing the bird before it goes by your position !! Big Congrats btw if you have the original might be interesting, wondering what that sky was like !!
Alfred, here is the original image after a little tweaking in DPP. I then took it to PS and did the rest. As you can see, the sky looks unnatural with no features at all.
Here is a revised version, with the sky slightly de-saturated (thank you Jackie for that excellent suggestion) and the halo that Nonda and Katie noticed toned down.
Another Red Tail
