Cooper's Hawk in Central New York

[GovMule]

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j177/GovMule/2007-09-16/IMG_9477100crop.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j177/GovMule/2007-09-16/IMG_9477.jpg

Here's a Cooper's Hawk I was able to catch this past weekend. Photo was taken just south of Syracuse in the Town of Otisco. The hawk was scanning a farmer's field for a possible dinner. The 1st image is a cropped at 100%. The 2nd image is untouched. I am just learning some basics with Photoshop (along with Photography in general). On the edited image,I used auto levels,and smart sharpen at 75%,radius 1,remove gaussian blur. I'm just "throwing darts" with Photoshop at this point. Any tips would be much appreciated. The exif data is below. Thanks for l@@king,and as always,I would really appreciate any c&c.

Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Shooting Date/Time 9/16/2007 3:41:54 PM
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/1000
Av( Aperture Value ) 4.0
Metering Mode Partial Metering
ISO Speed 100
Lens EF70-200mm f/4L USM
Focal Length 200.0 mm
Image Size 3888x2592
Image Quality Fine
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Standard

[canonloader]

It's a good shot. The crop is plenty sharp, but it could use some noise removal, or better yet, don't make the crop so big. Keep it at 800px wide. That will cut down on some it. You can also use the blur brush in CS2 and wipe over the blue sky to smooth out some of the grain, the rest of it looks OK.

[kenyc]

Nice.
KAC

[Cooper911]

Nice capture and really sharp for such a big crop. Nice work.