This appears to be a Red Tail Hawk, light adult. Taken yesterday under sunny skies and Southwest Washington state. I feel fairly lucky to be able to get this close. This is essentially full frame with a mild crop on the left side. Since some cloning of distracting branches.
Iso-800, 100-400+1.4 extender at 540 mm equivalent, F8, 420th, handheld, Fuji X-T3, Adobe camera raw 11, Topaz AI Clear, Topaz Adjust, TK sharpening action at 10%.
Nice job getting this close w/o cropping. The clean background has just enough detail to let the viewer know his environment but is still unobtrusive. Great detail in the rest of the image. Like the slight tilt to his head. Wonder what he is thinking?
Really nice, David. Image quality is excellent and I love the head-on look. I like Dan’s suggestion of doing a vertical crop on this one. I think the pose lends itself well to that. If you do, you might try adding a touch of canvas top and bottom, though I know the digital world is set up with an innate bias against verticals, particularly with the newer monitors.
The hawk looks good and the comp is pleasing to the eye. You want to selectively sharpen the region around the eye on the LH side if you deem necessary. I think this should print fine as is. Well done…Jim
