This guy (I think it’s a male, judging by how small it was), showed up just as we were getting lunch yesterday, so I threw on some slippers, grabbed the camera and headed out. He changed perches once, but was otherwise very cooperative. He seemed healthy, but kept his tail and wings spread almost constantly, which is somewhat odd behavior, but did make for some fun shots.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Anything. I painted over the brighter parts of the background with some of the green to reduce their impact-did it work?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I struggled a bit with the composition because it seemed to want to be pretty centered, so I ended up with it just off. Does this work?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 600 mm, hand held, f/8, 1/1000, iso 1600, manual exposure. Processed in the brand new LR & PS CC versions (so I had to reload my plugins and figure out Light Room’s new export system). Painted over parts of the background, used Neat Image for noise reduction and Topaz Detail to enhance feather texture. Some brightness and saturation adjustments to the bird. Cropped to 3582 x 2866 pixels before resizing for the web. Taken yesterday at 11:42 am under cloudy skies.
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1 Like
Man, yeah this pic works! I love the pose, and think that you handled the cropping beautifully. I was hiking a couple of days ago and came up on a Red-tail up in a tree that was kinda “mantling” too. After I got home and looked closely at the shot I took of it I saw that it was pretty wet. I’m thinking it was attempting to dry his stuff by doing that. Was it a wet or damp day there?
This looks pretty good Dennis. Nice color and background. I think he is behaving for you because you have so many birds around your place and he wants to keep his food supply as abundant as possible. I wish they would behave this well for me. The only thing I notice at high enlargement is that some of the feathers on the chest are not quite in focus compared to the rest of the bird. Perhaps a little more depth of field in a slightly faster shutter speed if possible.
Dave: It was a damp day and the grass was very wet-my slippers and pant legs were soaked when I came in. I was thinking the same thing, but the feathers didn’t look too wet.
What a great pose. Detail seems excellent. Stands out nicely from the background-could see trying to remove the white circle on the left upper and left center. Looks to me like a winner at the next NPPNW meeting (in Olympia, South Puget Sound Community College.)
Hello, Dennis ! Well, what’s not to like here ? Wonderful pose against a very pleasant BG. Congrats with a marvellous image… I guess the lunch tastes even better after this photo-break 
. Cheers, Hans
Dennis,
An awesome photo. Pose and lighting are perfect. No nits from me. Well done.
Dennis: Really like the fanned tail. It just adds so much to the pose. Lovely head turn. Very nice capture and processing.
I love that pose, Dennis. Great shot.
This is awesome Dennis, what a super pose with a nice perch and background too.
