Judith Lesnaw
February 2025 - Hawkeye
Original
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About the Image(s)
Several weeks ago I spotted a Hawk who had dropped by for breakfast (I had just filled my bird feeders and scattered peanuts in their shells about). Hawk was perched in a tree the branches of which presented a lovely shape. That hawk posed for me. I photographed him with a Canon R5 propped on a firm foam pillow, and Canon RF 100-500mm lens at 500mm. Settings were: Aperture priority, f 8.0, 1/800 sec, ISO 1600. I imported into Lightroom Classic and then denoised and sharpened it in Topaz AI 3.4.4. Back in LRC I made two crops. In one crop I left the Z branch. I then extended the crop for a portrait. The challenge was to remove the web of twigs and sweet gum pods that I felt cluttered the image. I experimented with the three modes of removal in LRC, and settled on generative fill in the remove tool.
11 comments posted
Judith, you are becoming a wildlife photographer. Great capture and post processing. The eyes look sharp and he posed very nicely for you. I find it interesting that the bird seems to be mostly sharp but the branch he is sitting on is not sharp even with an aperture of f/8. Not sure why but maybe others have some insight. The sky was not your friend but you have to take what you are offered. To me it seems like the edges of the bird, especially on the right side seem to be blown out. Not sure how I would address those areas. Maybe others have suggestions. Great work in isolating the bird from the surrounding twigs. Posted: 02/06/2025 01:45:18
Thanks for your observations. I selectively sharpened the bird and I added the wing tip below the branch to the selection. Thus the branch was not sharpened. I will try again and this time I will include the branch in the selection. I will experiment with those edges. I may have touched them when I cleaned up the twigs. Posted: 02/06/2025 01:50:28
I like your final selection. I see the attraction to the shape of the branch but the subject is the hawk, which your crop emphasizes. (I think is a Red-tail.) I would do a bit of dodging and burning, of which there are many techniques. I'd lighten up the left side of the head and the tail and tone down just a bit some of the highlight areas. Their appears to be a vignette which for this particular image, I would remove. My eye caught it and my taste is for a vignette to be either obvious or not noticeable and this one is between those extremes. Just my taste as it looks good as is. Posted: 02/06/2025 11:01:32
Thanks Mike. I need to study techniques for dodging and burning digitally. Thanks for your thoughts on vignettes. I will experiment. The power and pleasure of our dialog is that I always learn new ways of seeing things - and techniques to present what I have seen.
Posted: 02/06/2025 12:19:31
Posted: 02/06/2025 12:19:31
Judith, congratualtions on capturing a nice portrait of this Red tail hawk. I have read the previous comments and am in agreement with them, so will not repeat. There are a lot of good tutorials on dodging an burning in PS - it really is not difficult to master. I am wondering what type of metering you used here. I am guessing it may have been evaluative, as that is the default setting. I have found that for birds againast a bright sky center weighted metering gives me better results. It puts the most emphasis on the center of the frame. The reason it works for this type of capture is that you want the exposure to biased toward the bird but also take the background somewhat into account. Posted: 02/12/2025 15:45:47
Great tip on metering. I have not paid enough attention to it. Thanks!
Posted: 02/12/2025 16:00:57
Posted: 02/12/2025 16:00:57
I enjoy the look in the hawk's eye and the silly little feathers on the top on its head. It likely a juvenile. You might consider dodging around the right side of the upper chest region as others have suggested. I think that you captured a great expression, well done. Posted: 02/12/2025 20:05:28
Thanks Polly
Posted: 02/15/2025 22:30:05
Posted: 02/15/2025 22:30:05
Fine image of a red tailed hawk. I agree with the others with the dodging and burning of some areas of the bird would help. I might also suggest using the strength slider in Topaz Sharpen and lessen it, as some of the outside feathers on either side and the top of the head look like they are over sharpened giving an unnatural look to those feathers that stick out. The detail of the fine feathers above the feet have been brought out nicely. Posted: 02/15/2025 22:13:36
Thanks Tom. I will cut back the sharpening and see what it looks like. Posted: 02/15/2025 22:31:38
Composition wise it is a great image and I can feel the softness of its feathers. I agree with the other comments but I too think I have to study up on the Dodging & Burning. The sky a bit too bright for me and I would take out the Vignette as Mike suggests but otherwise a great capture of the Hawk with its lovely eyes. Posted: 02/16/2025 16:34:14