Juvenile Cooper's Hawk taken at the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve, Newport Beach, CA.
Had a good few minutes with this little guy who was perched on a branch on the edge of the bluffs right near a trail. But no matter what I tried - whistling, chirping, quacking - he wouldn't turn his head towards me even a wee bit!
I cloned out several branches in the upper RC and evened out a blotchy BG. I also slightly desaturated the BG. Not sure whether the OOF branch at the bottom needs to go (I think it does, but it will be a job). I may have over-sharpened this one, please let me know.
Canon 7D & 400mm f/5.6. Manual at f/8, 1/1600 sec, ISO 400
very nice bird and I really like the pose and the look. To me it does look over-sharpened and I feel the backgrounds looks a bit too neat - seems like it's been photoshopped. For me, the foreground branch is not a problem
Good looking bird, with good self analysis on image, plus good input from Per-Gunnar. It does look just a bit oversharpened, and a bit over processed in the background. You could post the original in this same thread so we can see what you started with, and perhaps make some suggestions.
Here is a version without the additional PP in PS CS5, but with some processing during RAW conversion (in ACR 6.2 - I ran a standard capture sharpening step and did some NR before bringing the image into PS).
I tried to improve the background by removing the dark blotches - may have overdone it!
I agree with cleaning up the sticks you did, but would do minimal processing on the background. I far prefer the more natural look of the original. I might consider toning down the brown spot above the head, but that is about it.
Just personal taste, but that is how I see it.
I too would have cleaned up the sticks and left the rest of the background pretty much as in the original. I did not find the bird oversharpened. Thanks to the responders above for pointing out the Photoshop work in the background; I might have missed it.
Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. The dark blotches seemed to draw my eye away from the bird, which is why I removed them, but I probably went too far and prettied up the BG too much.
Looks like there is a divided opinion on the level of sharpening I used, although as I stated at the outset, I was concerned that I overdid that as well. Sometimes - esp. in the wrong hands - Photoshop can be dangerous!
Young Coop
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