Hawk in the backyard.

[Maurice Allen]

Was out cleaning the pool and happened to notice this beautiful specimen perched in the pines behind our house.

Canon 40D 100-400mm, 1/2000 @ f5.6, AV +1/3, ISO 400

[Rob Mckenzie]

Hi Maurice
I can't believe you get these in your back garden - I am v.jealous.
I notice that the blue of the sky has some noise to it. I don't know if this is what you did already but try selectively sharpening the Hawk and leaving the blue background out of the sharpening process.
As I say this might be what you have done already so I apologise if it is.
ISO 400 shouldn't result in that much noise even if you are using a Canon!! (Sorry, couldn't help it)
Rob

[denise ippolito]

Maurice, Agree w/ noise in BG-Was this a heavy crop? Nice shot!!

[Maurice Allen]

I noticed the noise. I just sharpened the whole image when i resized it for the web with Artie's suggested 300 0.3 1 and second pass of 100 0.2 0 if anyone has suggestions please let me know. Again this is an Eager to Learn post. Maurice

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Maurice,
I like the capture, a fine looking bird. A few things to consider...you have allot of noise in the background. The capture angle is a bit steep; I know...sometimes we have no other choice. you were shooting in harsh light with the sun angle from the 10 o'clock position; thats why you have some prominent hot spots and the shadows...I cropped the composition to place the bird on the left side of the frame, cropped from the top to eliminate the negative space on top, opened up the mid-tones in the sky to lighten it up a tad and opened up the shadows on the bird. also burned the whites on portions of the body and on the perch...selective sharpened the feathers and the eye...and adjusted the contrast...see if this present well to you...:cool:

[Maurice Allen]

Gus that is a very nice repost, I have been trying to work on my PP and think that it has gotten better but CS4 has such a steep learning curve. Thanks to you and all, my photography has gotten better because of everyone here at the forum. Maurice

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Maurice When you have such a good clean bg might want to select the bird and only sharpen what you need .. the bird !!

Easy say to do would be selecting by color Go to Select >color range and tweak the amount works well !!! .. then you inverse selection for the bird.

btw try moving into sun angle to illuminated the entire bird, there is a shadow on the right side and the tail is dark !!!


..... Hi Rob ... Your Cruel :) btw up there you could be using a Canon since everything is white most of the time :)

[Rob Mckenzie]

Apologies for the Canon comment...I don't know what came over me...I have been listening to Scott Bourne on his TWIP podcast way too much.
Too true about the -30 white situation up here though. I am v.jealous of all you Floridians, although snowboarding down there is a little difficult I hear.

[Maurice Allen]

LMAO!!! Yep, can't snowboard in FL but you can wakeboard and ride motorcycles all year!! :) Thanks for all the help with my image I am learning more every month. This is a great forum for photographers I tell everyone about it.