Look who dropped in for lunch

[O'Rork]

This took me by surprise. No sooner had I filled my thistle feeder, hung it and got back in my favorite chair, I saw something of a flutter. The D600 was ready as I had just taken meter readings and adjusted for effect. This is SOOC, raw and cropped. See the whole set on my flickr page.

 

[O'Rork]

Please critique.

 

[sm4him]

I hate you. That's my critique. :lmao:

Just kidding--but seriously, why do all these birds just drop into OTHER people's backyards and not MINE??? I have big bird envy (that's big bird, not Big Bird; I had my fill of Sesame Street characters years ago!).

Nice shot--but there are a lot of background distractions, in particular that fence (?) in the back, the concrete drain and that red stalk sticking up just behind the hawk. I'd trying cropping this so that the bird fills more of the frame--crop the wire fence out completely, crop a lot off the left side and a little off the right side, then clone that red stalk out. Not sure there's much you can do about the concrete. I guess you could clone it out too, if your PS skills are up to; I know mine aren't.

 

[Aloicious]

nice catch...it looks like you missed focus on the eyes, or maybe a little motion blur from a slower shutter speed or something (not at a computer that I can access EXIF on). the background is distracting like SM4Him mentioned, but sometimes there isnt much you can do about that, a tighter crop would help reduce/eliminate the fence, and that dark green branch in the upper right. as far as processing goes, it feels a little flat, some curves adjustment could help out, as well as perhaps a small boost in saturation (might be the hospital monitor I'm viewing it on though)...

 

[LightMatters]

Really caught the intense inquisitiveness of the raptor guarding its lunch. There's a lot to work with in this shot ... Congrats

 

[O'Rork]

Thank you all. I'll get the raw going in Capture and see what I can do. He had to twitch or something, the grass blades in the DOF from the focal point are razor sharp, as are all in the set. Interesting, I would think at 1/800 he should be froze like ice. It is a radical crop already. I did have to can 4 or 5 from the set due to motion blur. I was really pushing the limits of this lens. Tomorrow the 300 2.8 arrives, then the TC-14Eii. So, 420mm F4 here I come.

1/800, F4, ISO 1100 @ 200mm.

Please show me your processing skills on this one. I'll put up the big file on my Flickr. I have very little time with Capture 2 and none on others.

 

[MSnowy]

Maybe a tighter crop as sm4him suggested. Something like this. This is very basic attempt, because I don't do much PP work. I used Lightroom 4.

 

[O'Rork]

My attempt.

 

[greybeard]

I'm somewhere in between with PP. I'd place the beak at the 1/3 cross and enhance the color a bit as it looks a little flat.