Red-shouldered Hawk

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
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Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk1041×1301 416 KB

Second year I’ve seen a red-shouldered hawk pair in this location. They generally are high up in a tree, so lots of branches, some of which I removed. The hawk was facing the morning sun, which brought out the redness in its plumage.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

Too busy with all the branches?

Technical Details

Canon R5; 100-500 at 500 mm; 1/800 at f7.1, -1/3EV; ISO 160

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Excellent capture, Allen, and in great lighting. I like how the bird is looking and the branches around framing the bird in the environment.

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Hi @Allen_Brooks

Nice lookout this red-shouldered hawk:

Aesthetic : Most of the branches don’t bother me much. The merge of the head and the branch above is a bummer. If you were an inch higher that probably wouldn’t have happened.

Technical: Feels just a touch underexposed. A quick look in PS showed on a levels adjustment layer, moving the whites slider to 242 and the midtowns to .95 made a nice change.

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Obviously tough shooting conditions @Allen_Brooks. Like @Keith_Bauer, I would like to see a bit more light on the hawk. A nice photo worth tweaking just a bit, in my opinion.

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Thanks, @Dean_Salman , @Keith_Bauer, and @terryb for your comments. Here’s a repost with the changes Keith suggested. It does bring out some of the richness in the reds and there’s more contrast against the sky. Keith, I agree the branch over the head is not well placed, but before I cloned them out there were three small branches coming off that branch as if it was a headdress for the hawk.

19a-23-Red-shouldered Hawk-8181-repost
19a-23-Red-shouldered Hawk-8181-repost1041×1301 441 KB

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I love red shoulder hawks. This one is no exception. You really captured the beautiful red and orange tones in this one. This looks like a tough perch to get a clean shot without a branch touching the bird somewhere and you did a pretty good job but the head touching the branch above him bothers me a little bit. It would have been great to have just a little bit of separation there but you would have needed to be on your tippy toes. You have a good head turn as well.

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