Red tail hawks?

[Luis Gonzalez Jr]

Hello All,

I am about 60% sure of this, but I think these are a pair of Red Tail Hawks. I could be wrong (40% chance of that ). Of course I can already tell that the subjects are blurry but this is as close as I could get my zoom lens and this is my FIRST bird in flight picture! Comments and critique welcomed (be gentle).

Specs:
Pentax K10D
Pentax 75mm - 300mm @300mm
ISO-400
f/5.8
1/750
Some Topaz NR on the background and some sharpening on the subjects.

Holla!

[Dan Brown]

Hi Luis. I can't see an image? oops, there it is. Yes, they are Red-tailed Hawks. I see red tails and the patagial marks on the leading edge of the wings. The lower, larger bird seems a little out of focus. Hard to get both hawks in the same plane sometimes and at f5.8 even harder. For BIF, you should try using a higher shutter speed, (1600 would be good, 2000 even better) which means a higher ISO. Also, shooting the underside of the birds in flight will require you to over expose, a little 1 or 2 stops from the sky reading to properly expose the undersides. Keep trying and it will come.

[Kerry Perkins]

Luis, we are always gentle... Red-tailed hawks for sure. Your DOF (depth of field) budget was quite low here and it didn't cover both birds in this case. Very difficult exposure situation and I don't know that I have a good answer other than what Dan said previously. It is a thin line between over and under on these birds. Keep trying and it will come, practice is the best plan! I suggest that you do a search on "depth of field" on this site and on Google. It is a cruel reality that the more magnification we get, the less DOF we have to work with!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Read this, it help. These are the techniques used by many on this forum and will make you better. Just take it slow and start by learning the rules of exposure. Keep posting and improvement will come fast - thanks for sharing. Birds in flight are challenging as well, hang in there try some stationary subject too.

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...e-photographer