Fine Looking Ferruginous

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
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FH
FH1678Ɨ2040 585 KB

I was fortunate yesterday to get some shots of an early (for around here) Ferruginous Hawk. Not only are they my favorite hawks but they tend to be very accommodating of us humans. This guy let me shoot it for quite a while, and when it flew it went sideways to me in good light unlike how other hawks usually act. I decided to leave in all of the surrounding environmental stuff. Yeah? D500, Nikon 200-500 lens, Nikon 1.4 TC, hand held, 1/3200th, 700mm, ISO 800, cropped to 2707 x 3291, AI Clear.

What technical feedback would you like if any? Any

What artistic feedback would you like if any? Any

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

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Gorgeous! And a very nice setting. I would have removed the 3 OOF twigs surrounding the bird, but leaving them is certainly not a spoiler.

There is a curious halo around the yellow areas of the feet. Iā€™m wondering if it came from AI Clear?

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I was so busy looking at the head and breast that I did not even notice the legs issue. I donā€™t think AI Clear wouldā€™v done that. Iā€™m guessing that they are getting into the OOF foreground like all that foliage at the bottom? Thanks so much for your input.

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Gorgeous bird, Dave, with excellent detail. I kind of wish for room for the rest of the tail, but that would probably require including a lot of out of focus vegetation.

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Hi,

The halo around the legs can be fixed with the rubber stamp tool on a layer set to darken. It will take some careful and deliberate cloning to remove this type of halo. The colors of this hawk are what makes this photo fun to examine.The surrounding branches can easily be removed if so desired. I do like how they frame the hawkā€¦Jim

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It is a pretty hawk that really stands out on that blue bg. . Nice job on the framing. I would remove those few oof branches esp. the one on right and the one poking in from left.

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I might just try my hand at photoshopping out the legs halos. Thanks. I left the surrounding branches for the ā€œframingā€ they providedā€¦ warts and all. It was not an easy decision for me. My biggest regret about my field framing is that I have cut off some imagined tail area. It was a beginner mistake my being so intent on getting its eye in focus that it ended up being too centered and the tail got robbed. I am guilty of striving to get in close to the subject and sometimes TOO close. On hindsight, I sure wish I wouldā€™ve zoomed back a bit.

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