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These guys only winter here. Actually down the mountain from where I live and they’ve become my favorite American hawk. I’ve been lusting to get a shot or two of one in some good light and also in flight. Well, I got my wish this morning and got several shots of one, this being my personal favorite that really shows off their beautiful feathers. D500, Nikon 200-500 lens, Nikon 1.4 TC, hand held (actually on a rubber tube on my car’s partially rolled down window), 1/3200th, f 10, 480mm, ISO1100, AI Clear, Sharpen AI, cropped to 2901 x 2332.
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HI Dave, really nice view of this hawk and I like the spread wings too. Nice you caught such dynamic pose even though I wish he was not looking away from us. Nicely composed in the frame. Maybe it’s just my eyes but did you run some kind of filter over the bird or maybe use noise reduction on it? To me the feathers seem a little more smoothed out than I would expect.
Lovely capture of this hawk Dave - nice and sharp - the AI Clear and Sharpen is new to me - have been debating for a while now. As Allen points out, the wings perhaps could do with a bit more texture
The image could be stronger if the bird was flying 60 degrees to its left - but that nature for you
It also looked a little too blue for me - that’s very personal though
I also tried to give it a little more space - you have the right idea though leaving more space in front of it
What a wonderful capture. Sharp focus throughout with great detail in the feathers. I prefer the color tones of your original image, although adding a little space behind him would be my preference. Great shot!
A beautiful bird, well captured in flight. I like the position of the wing and tail feathers. Looks as if you had some nice light. For me, I like the blue background you have as the hawk stands out well. There is a painterly feel to the head, possibly from the sharpening process.
This is really sweet, Dave. Wonderful detail in the feathers and I love the wing spread and angle. I do wish it had given you a bit of a head turn, but that’s just a good excuse to go back for more.
excellent wing position and detail in this image on most of the plumage. I stopped using AI clear because the results were similar to what others have noticed, a smeared sharpness. I initially thought it was really quite good for enhancing detail. It does have its uses and I think there are places where it can help provided one does a duplicate layer and erases the smeared sharpness from the duplicate. Give it a try.
In this case I found Sharpen AI to be the reoson the textures got so smooth. I usually like the improvements that I get using AI Clear. I will do some experimenting with layering as you suggest though. Thanks for the advice.
