Ferruginous Hawk

Aloicious

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www.photographywild.com
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The largest north American member of the hawk family, these guys can get up to 27" long, with wingspans up to 60", and weighing up to 4.6 lbs...

They are one of only 3 north American raptors to have feathers all the way down to their toes (the others are rough legged hawks (a close relative), and golden eagles)

I love finding these guys, they're one of my favorite birds to photograph, and one of the birds that got me hooked on wildlife photography, specifically raptors (the first raptor I ever photographed in the wild was one of these, actually along the same road as this one)

ferrunginous1_zps85305215.jpg~original
 
Excellent! Beautiful bird. Not sure I've ever seen one before your posts. Thanx.
 
sweet shot

I would be tempted to crop off the wood or use content aware delete and I would def tone down his chest
 
Excellent! Beautiful bird. Not sure I've ever seen one before your posts. Thanx.

Thanks, they have a pretty small area of residence, mainly western and southwestern US/northern Mexico, they like arid and open country.

sweet shot

I would be tempted to crop off the wood or use content aware delete and I would def tone down his chest

Thanks...yeah I tried cropping out the wood but it just looks strange to me, would look even stranger to clone it out and have him standing on nothing. I'd prefer him perched on something natural, but to me this falls In the I'll take what I can get category.

Nothing is clipped on his chest, what exactly would you recommend toning down? I thought about bringing the yellows down a bit, but in PS things look a bit different than photobucket for some reason...I haven't been too happy with photobucket's displayed IQ recently, I think they've started to monkey with things like re-compressing them or something, who knows.

here's one of him just after takeoff, would prefer to not clip the wings, and not have the phone pole in the background, but I'll take what I can get.

ferrunginous2_zps3aded60b.jpg~original
 
Excellent! Beautiful bird. Not sure I've ever seen one before your posts. Thanx.

Thanks, they have a pretty small area of residence, mainly western and southwestern US/northern Mexico, they like arid and open country.

sweet shot

I would be tempted to crop off the wood or use content aware delete and I would def tone down his chest

Thanks...yeah I tried cropping out the wood but it just looks strange to me, would look even stranger to clone it out and have him standing on nothing. I'd prefer him perched on something natural, but to me this falls In the I'll take what I can get category.

Nothing is clipped on his chest, what exactly would you recommend toning down? I thought about bringing the yellows down a bit, but in PS things look a bit different than photobucket for some reason...I haven't been too happy with photobucket's displayed IQ recently, I think they've started to monkey with things like re-compressing them or something, who knows.

here's one of him just after takeoff, would prefer to not clip the wings, and not have the phone pole in the background, but I'll take what I can get.

i don't always go by the histogram.....it looks like some feather detail is burned, i would try dropping the highlites in that area and see what's there
 
i don't always go by the histogram.....it looks like some feather detail is burned, i would try dropping the highlites in that area and see what's there

let me give it a shot, I'm always up for improvements...
 
Here's a little play with highlights and shadows, as well as a little lower adjustment to contrast. I think it did help out a little (moreso in the eye area than in the chest IMO), but this is also a decent crop amount, in harsh lighting I'm not sure much more detail could be extracted without going overboard (I could maybe pull a little more detail out with tone mapping or something similar, but I'm not a fan of that look)

ferrunginous1_1_zpsee5ff5e8.jpg~original
 
Here's a little play with highlights and shadows, as well as a little lower adjustment to contrast. I think it did help out a little (moreso in the eye area than in the chest IMO), but this is also a decent crop amount, in harsh lighting I'm not sure much more detail could be extracted without going overboard (I could maybe pull a little more detail out with tone mapping or something similar, but I'm not a fan of that look)

ferrunginous1_1_zpsee5ff5e8.jpg~original

IMO the chest is noticeably better, more feathers and less brightness
 
yeah the chest did benefit, I agree, I just think the darks gained more than the lights. overall a better edit though, for sure. thanks for the suggestion.
 

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