(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
I have seen this hawk multiple times. Usually perches and then flies off. First time he/she actually spent time in the birdbath. Well, it’s warm and dry here in Arizona, so I am glad he/she likes our bath. Happy shot.
Canon 7Dll, Canon 400mm 5.6f, 1/2500 sec, ISO 200
Any comments are appreciated.
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Hi, Charlie. Love the pose of this young hawk. Nice details and color. The bars in the background are a little distracting for me, but we take what we can get, right? Good effort.
Really good job on the detail here. The light is quite pleasing. As Terry mentioned, the bars are rather distracting.
I’m not in a position to evaluate your Photoshop skills but removing the bars is actually quite easy and this took me less than 10 minutes. The combination of using the Spot healing brush, healing brush, patch tool and clone tool. Additionally I smoothed out the darker area in the upper right with a tilt shift blur. These are all tools that you should learn how to use.
Hi Charlie
It must me nice to see this hawk visiting your back yard. Your photograph has good action, eye contact, control of the whites and shows the natural environment you fond the hawk in. (yes the bars are not the best background). David’s repost show great skill in using Photoshop and presents a very good looking photograph of a hawk taking a bath. My understanding of the Nature Photographers sight, was to present photographs as nature presented them. Removing a leaf, branch or adjusting white balance, exposure and hot spots, does not change the overall look of the shot we were presented with. Change the hole background or sky does and yes I know the sky some time gets blown out when photographing birds)
Nice photo and fun watching your hawk.
Peter
Thanks for the suggestions. I tried blending and blurring but none of it worked. But, great idea to use healing brush and clone tool. I have use them alot and just escaped me to not think of it. David, you got what I was hoping for. Thanks
An excellent image of the bird in the bath, Charlie. I actually didn’t mind the bars, but David’s method of removing them worked quite nicely. We bought a bird bath a few years ago largely because the ad had a picture of it with a Cooper’s Hawk in it. Unfortunately the concrete wasn’t formulated right for winters and it fell apart on us before it attracted one here.
