Red-tailed hawk...let me have your worst...

Okay, so I have these shots that I got back in '09 of a red-tailed hawk. I love the shots, got some really great ones, but every time i look at them I think there's something wrong. I don't know what it is but something bugs me about the shots.

Give me some honest, brutal critique and tell me what you think is wrong. And, if you want to edit them please feel free, I want to see what others will do with the shots. Maybe I'm missing something, maybe I'm just being overly-critical, I don't know.


Have at it...the first two are original edits I did back when I shot them, the third is one I worked on today, applying what I've learned between then and now, hoping my opinion would change on the shots. It didn't...

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/katodog/4141079​718/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/katodog/4106757​763/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/katodog/6659582​435/

Nice, I like them. No. 2 is best


Professionel fotograf i Århus

The bird looks fine in all of them. Perhaps a little too bright in the last one, but not horrible. The biggest thing I see is the framing.....a little creative cropping would help get the bird off dead center. Catching multiple images of a red-tail sitting on the ground is a pretty cool accomplishment.

They are good images, what I see that may be bothering you is the separation of the bird from the background. The background is very busy it may be distracting you. Try to remove some of the grass in front of the bird's legs as well.

They're great only the first two look just a tad dark on my screen and the 3rd a tad bright.Other than that I have no issues.With Red tails or any raptors you shoot them where you can because "often times" it may be hours or even days until you get another chance.At least that's the way it is in my world with a 400mm.
Pete

Woolburr wrote in post #13667244
The bird looks fine in all of them. Perhaps a little too bright in the last one, but not horrible. The biggest thing I see is the framing.....a little creative cropping would help get the bird off dead center. Catching multiple images of a red-tail sitting on the ground is a pretty cool accomplishment.

A friend and I followed the hawk for at least an hour, it was busy looking for food and didn't care much that we were there. I got to within about 15 feet and it didn't even look at me.

Cropping, I don't know, didn't give it much though. I kinda wanted to keep it as-shot, but I'll try a few crops and see how I like them.

pbelarge wrote in post #13667296
They are good images, what I see that may be bothering you is the separation of the bird from the background. The background is very busy it may be distracting you. Try to remove some of the grass in front of the bird's legs as well.

My problem is that I love the shots, but something keeps nipping at me. I don't know if it's the colors, the busy scene, just don't know.

The separation does bother me, that's one thing. But, the artistic side of my brain is telling me "They're great shots of a beautiful bird, don't bother yourself with technical details"...sadly the photographer side of me, the technical side, keeps slapping the artistic side and saying "There's something wrong!".

PIX-R-IT wrote in post #13667385
They're great only the first two look just a tad dark on my screen and the 3rd a tad bright.Other than that I have no issues.With Red tails or any raptors you shoot them where you can because "often times" it may be hours or even days until you get another chance.At least that's the way it is in my world with a 400mm.
Pete

Yup, the first two are a bit dark, back then I didn't really brighten shots all that much. These days I like to see things a bit brighter, I think it makes shots look better. The third, I don't know, I think on my monitors it looks pretty good, but that's the whole point of asking for critique: My opinion doesn't matter, it's everyone elses opinion I'm after.


And you're right, with any type of wildlife you take what you can get...

You guys feel like editing?? Here's the originals, full-size or close to it. Do what you would do if you shot them, I'd like to see different interpretations...


Hawk 001

Hawk 002

Hawk 003

Just some background separation. Don't mind the increased brightness around the bird - made a mistake but can't go back since I lost the sleection, etc. But you get the idea.

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I didn't do any background separation because I was worried about losing the tips of grass that would be in the same plane as the bird. But, your edit seems to work pretty decent so I'm gonna go back and do a little work and see how I like it. Easy enough to do...

katodog wrote in post #13667509
You guys feel like editing?? Here's the originals, full-size or close to it. Do what you would do if you shot them, I'd like to see different interpretations...


Hawk 001

Hawk 002

Hawk 003

That's the thing there must be hundreds of different monitors out there showing darker/brighter etc. Im using an Apple pre-glossy front monitor.

Here's my attempt, I warmed it a whisker and darkened the area around the hawk to make it stand out from the grass.

Here's the other,I used the recovery slider in ACR added contrast,saturation.

I'll start by saying I'd be really thrilled with this capture. The bird looks great - focus, colors, and it is just a great looking bird.

But, a hawk on the ground is just going to look less dramatic than one on a perch or in flight. It doesn't have the 'ruler of the land, look that it does on a roost. Add to that the busy background you always get on the ground, and blades of grass in the way, and it makes it harder for the subject to pop out at you. I think the edits to blur and darken the background are the right way to go.