hawk

[ctgoldwing]

Early this morning as I was about to go to work I glanced up & saw this fella looking for breakfast on a dead tree about 25m up. Had to run back in & get my 300mm lens.

300mm f2.8 L IS with 1.4X converter @ f4.0 1/1500 sec iso 200 hand held - very cropped

http://molaver.org/photos/misc/img_3022%20hawk.jpg

[Leighow]

Well this is pretty terrific.
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The claw and the eye act as book ends and hold this image firm in our minds.

Tech Stuff
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I gather that the camera thought it had a 450 mm lens. I know that I carry a very compact set of binocs on my walk (8 x 24) and 8x seems to be the minimal power to get close to these birds. That said, lots of birders use considerably more -- so you did well.

My only thought is the noise I see. Is that due to posting of ISO. If the latter could you have dropped to a lower ISO -- given an IS lens (I am thinking about Canon's 8 x 30 IS binocs). Anyway, some members seem to know how to use available software to reduse noise.

HOWIE

[ctgoldwing]

I appreciate your kind comments & tomorrow I will try to work on the noise artifacts. I didn't mention but the camera is a 10D.

here is the original image - I was far away

http://molaver.org/photos/misc/img_3022.jpg

[CyberDyneSystems]

This is fantastic!

I love the raptors! (although of late they have shunned me,. I am happy with my new freindships being forged with Herons in the meantime :) )

On a sheer blue sky like that,. even with a 10D on ISO 200 some noise can occur. I have not been able to figure out why more sometimes than others,. but with a blown up crop the otherwise insignaficant effect is magnified.

With this image it would be easy to select only the blue sky (using the magic wand tool) and run a noise plug in on the selection only (so as not to muck up the detail of the hawk)

In fact, as you don't need to do anything fancy,. just the blue sky selection,. one of Photoshops "blur" tools should do just fine. Either smart blur or Gausian blur both could take this job on without any problem.

[CyberDyneSystems]

P.S.,.. just realised this is in the "critique Corner",. and thus......

........my two cents :D

I like the Original image better. There is nothing about the setting that detracts from the hawk in any way. It seems some minor cropping could be done and still leave the scene I like so much,.. it is a bit of a shame there is not more of the upright trunk on the left,.. but other than to say "a little off the top" I'm not sure what the best approach would be.

They are both great images,. one is a scene, the other a portrait.

[KevinG3]

Wow. Awsome bird. I like both shots but I think I prefer the second. As CDS stated, there is nothing there that is distracting so why crop it. I have a G3 and the more pic's I see taken with the 10D, the more I want one.

Great pic!