Red-tailed Hawk (c)

[Raymond Barlow]

D300 / 200-400 VR
f4 1/640 iso 250 / 200mm
hand held, natural light, Slight crop
(cloned out some jessies)

Image taken at a workshop I hosted yesterday locally. Thanks to all my guests!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

You picked a nice setting for this good-looking bird. I like the soft light, look-back pose and BG. The head looks a bit softer than the back, maybe some selective sharpening?

[Jim Buescher]

A classic RTH image. Maybe remove the dead needles above the head. Well done.

[Phil Ertel]

Nice looking bird. I like your placement of the bird in frame. The look back pose works as you captured the head parallel to the sensor plane. I agree with Axel that a bit more sharpening of the head might help. I also like the branch as it provides me with a sense of environment/habitat. I find the bright spots in the background to be a little distracting. Thanks for sharing.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Good work Ray! Nice scene and I agree about a bit more sharpening of the head. :)

[Aidan Briggs]

I love the overcast light and natural setting. The bird looks a tad soft to me, it almost seems as if the focus was more on the branches.

[Harshad Barve]

wonderful image , agreed on head sharpening
TFS

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the composition and colors, IMO the body and head both could be sharper, it seems that some feather detail has been lost in compression but that isn't a major deal. Main issue here is the in-focus pine needles to the left of the hawk which are distracting from the hawk. I would try cloning them out you would still have plenty of needles as a habitat indication.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful eye contact, and the setting, just that one more round of sharpening required, l personally would just clone out the leafs above the bird head.

[Raymond Barlow]

thanks for the great advise.. I have a feeling I didn't sharpen the original at all., hope this looks better.

I cloned out the needles, and did a quick local sharpening on the bird only.