Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I love photographing birds of prey! well, who doesn’t’.
But they are often very skittish. This shot was taken in South Dakota.
I reached a day early for my workshop and ventured out to check out wildlife. I knew there are hawks, owls, and of course prairie dogs all over.
There was no one on the road and it was just me checking out birds as I drove. Upon finding this lil guy, I really thought it is a Cooper’s Hawk. Rookie mistake.
Skittish as ever, it finally stopped flying from one stump to another for a hot second, gave me a stare and flew away
Technical Details
Taken at 451mm. Canon R5 + RF 100-500mm
f6.3, ISO 800, and 1/4000 sec
2 Likes
Wonderful image in lovely soft light! I love the perch, BG and pose. There is a lot of noise in the bird, though. I don’t know your workflow but Topaz (and undoubtedly other denosie programs) could work wonders here, with user input adjustments to remove noise and give a tiny bit of sharpening without giving an overly flattened look.
1 Like
Hi Subha,
I’m responding in part because you’ve captured one of my favorite birds from a favored region. This is a male Prairie or Richardson’s Merlin. They don’t linger long, so great job on the pose and shot. I agree with Dianne on all accounts: I like the soft background and the pose, but also agree that you make it even better with some denoise. I might also suggest a small crop, bringing the bottom up just a touch, as well as bringing the right side in, certainly personal preference, and congrats again for catching a great moment.
Thanks, Diane. I will definitely give it a shot. I do have denoise.
Thanks a lot, Craig. I never thought of it being Richardson. will check my subley guide 
If you mean you have Topaz Denoise (there are others…) compare the different algorithms at 100% view and toggle on the default/recommended settings before you try others. I find the newer algorithms of Low Light and sometimes Severe Noise (loose naming conventions) usually work best. I don’t think I have ever found a case where I didn’t just do a global denoise.
