Red-Shouldered Hawk pair

[Cheryl Slechta]

I finally had time to work on another ETL image. I changed WB, did curves, nr, usm and worked on the eyes.
Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions appreciated.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Cherly,

What are the techs, always helpful. Overall I like it, might take a tad from the top. Maybe crop out the black area middle of top edge. Love the pic - very regal.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Jeff, sorry, I left them off. Canon 7D, 100-400L, f/5.6, 1/160sec., ISO 400, tripod. Thanks for the comment.

[Bob Pelkey]

I like how you have the birds lower in the frame which gives the illusion,
in this case, of them closer than they are. Post processing seems dramatic.

[dankearl]

Very nice colors and sharpness.
I like the habitat as well.
Nice work.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Cheryl,

Greetings. Cool pair of red-shouldered... great angle (I've been frustrated by the nest I know of but the hawks are always way up in the tree tops. Sigh). I like the pattern mirrored in the red parts of the bg.

I find the edginess and brightness of the moss and branches a bit distracting. A curve pulling down the highlights (flattening them) with the birds masked out would fix that and would pop the birds nicely.

Thanks for posting...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Cheryl, very nice pair of hawks indeed! If I'm not mistaken I have seen this one in another incarnation...

Lots to like about the image, starting with the excellent matching poses and great good fortune to have the heads so close together so your f/5.6 was able to give you four sharp eyes! Colors and exposure are excellent and the image tells the story nicely. Michael has a good point about the moss and branches. There are several ways you could go about minimizing their contribution to the image, including using the blur tool or even a dark vignette applied very lightly. I would also consider cropping from the top to eliminate the dark areas up there which compete for the eye's attention. Very nice work and an excellent natural history image!

[Brendan Dozier]

Beautiful capture, Cheryl! Their matching pose, moss habitat, and vertical frame, make for a very nice composition. Good suggestions above. Well done!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. I tried to incorporate them - desaturated and slightly blurred the bg and cropped from the top. I hope this is an improvement.

[Kerry Perkins]

Cheryl, very solid repost and it looks great to me. Good job!

[Brendan Dozier]

Looks great, Cheryl!

[Daniel Bailey]

Great capture indeed!