Gray Goshawk (c)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

This is another favorite Aussie raptor of mine, the Gray Goshawk (Accipter novaehollandiae). Comes in gray and white morphs, often the two breeding together. not known why the differences. Love their red eyes. This fellow was in captivity and you can see the slight cere damage is perhaps evidence of captive frustration. Many raptors end up in this wildlife park because they are unable to be released into the wild. Though I was not aware of this one's reason (if any). It was preening, hence the fluff on bill.
Almost FF.
30D, 300/4L + 1.4x, f/7.1, 1/320th, ISO800, flash, HH

[Randy Stout]

Akos:

Another beauty. Very sharp.

I might be tempted to try two things. Just from a personal standpoint, I don't think the large area of white to the left adds much to the image, not much detail there . I would consider cropping out 25% of the area between the left margin and eye.

I also might very slightly reduce the brightness of the image, it looks a bit overflashed for my personal taste.
I think the eye would look better if it wasn't quite so bright.

Cheers

Randy

[Randy Stout]

Akos:

Here is what I had in mind.

Randy

PS: In looking at it more, I might also remove the odd reflection on the iris at 11:00

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Good idea Randy! thanks, will be back. :)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Made changes and burnt the whites on the LHS a little, just one pass with a large burn brush. Fixed the eye too. thanks for your help Randy.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Akos, I like the positive changes you've brought to your image with the help of Randy. Here I took it one step further by negating an apparant color cast on the image (I'm surprised no one mentioned it yet!). Since the pupil isn't as black as it should be I took the black eye dropper in Levels and clicked on the darkest part of the pupil...this instantly got rid of the color cast and darkened the pupil as it should be. I then went ahead and did some finishing touches on the eye reflections to clean it out. Hope you like the result.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

THank you Daniel for taking the time. I also tried to darken the pupil in the post above with the burn tool. Your method is fantastic, I must take note. Thanks again. :)

[Connie Mier]

The guys did a great job on an already wonderful shot. Very interesting close up Akos, thanks for showing it.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Interesting discussion and good reposts. If it were mine I would go for a wider crop to include the entire head.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Interesting discussion and good reposts. If it were mine I would go for a wider crop to include the entire head.

Mr. Eagle-eyes,
You always throw a spanner in the works. :D
I will post the original later from home. Thanks for looking! :)

[denise ippolito]

Akos, I think this is a great portrait and the re-posts really make it pop!! Beautiful details and eye.

[Harshad Barve]

Akos bhai
Fantatstic image. got better with every improvement,
BTW what a cool looking raptor this is , awesome ,
TFS

[Dave Barnes]

The re-posts have made a great improvement to this pic. I realy like the final result here.
The 30D never fails to please me with the quality it produces. I use one as my back up and am never hesitant to use it. Good detail produced here.

[Milan V]

Nice close up. Prefere the last version.

[Dominic Cantin]

Beautiful image Akos ! I like your first post for the frame but Daniel's repost is excellent for the colors and sharpness. Then a mixt of both would be perfect !

Dom :)

[Mohanram Kemparaju]

Daniel, that was great work, the repost looks great.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Cool one Bhai.. loved the frame.. Congrats..I feel Daniels repost works best..

[arash_hazeghi]

Great image with each repost getting slightly better, nice shot!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Okay. Full frame (for Axel) and burnt whites and BG a little; touched up the eye as per Daniel Cadieux's tip. Not sure how much of an improvement it is? I tidied up the flesh wound on the eyebrow too with a QM.

[Krijn Trimbos]

The repost by Daniel does it for me the last post doesn't work for me composition wise. Love the up close and personal feel of this shot, Daniel did a good job removing the cast and I would defenitely stick to the patching work and burning of the BG that you did in your last post. I would probably also ligthen en saturate the iris just a bit more. Great shot, thanks for showing

[Stu Bowie]

Aussie mate, your original comp works the best for me. I like the way you have captured this close up, and Dan's pp work has made a difference. You have achieved the same above, but not too keen on the comp. Cheers.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Great looking fellow my friend. May be too tight for my taste, the whites are too white also. Sorry but the eye does not work for me in any repost. Can you try to work with this fellow again? The last repost is certainly an improve.