Hawk

jeffashman · Apr 19, 2021

The original of this was pretty messed up. I was playing with settings, and when I saw this hawk, I forgot to reset. It could have been so much better. f/20 1/40 ISO 100 300mm (what a mess)

GenericHawk by Jeff Ashman, on Flickr

Jeff15 · Apr 20, 2021

Very nice shot.....

RVT1K · Apr 20, 2021

Its not bad at all. A little dark, did you do any kind of post-processing? You could lighten it up that way if you wanted.

Was that shot hand-held? If so it is very good especially for 300mm and 1/40 sec.

But I have to ask why you had your camera set to f/20? I've only ever seen people do that for very long exposure, night-time shots to get those long trails of light from cars and such. Were you using auto-focus? Having the aperture set so small can cause issues with that and some cameras will not autofocus.

nokk · Apr 20, 2021

you don't learn if you don't play. shallower dof would be nice, but it looks pretty sharp for being 1/40s @ 300mm. the exposure looks good, the front half of the hawk is in shadow, so i expect it to be darker. if you'd exposed more you would have risked blowing out the top of the hawk's head.

K9Kirk · Apr 20, 2021

Not bad. I agree with the others. Also, gotta watch the over use of the un sharp. You're on the right track but if I may suggest, try shooting animals @ f/8 or lower (f/20 is too small an aper. and those limbs behind it don't need to be in focus anyway) to allow for more light and consequently you can increase the shutter speed to avoid camera shake. Try a shot like that on another bird using manual settings of f/5.6 up to f/8, 1/500th up to 1/1600th to get better sharpness and AUTO ISO and compare the differences. GL.

jeffashman · Apr 20, 2021

Jeff15 said:
Very nice shot.....

Thank you!

jeffashman · Apr 20, 2021

RVT1K said:
Its not bad at all. A little dark, did you do any kind of post-processing? You could lighten it up that way if you wanted.

Was that shot hand-held? If so it is very good especially for 300mm and 1/40 sec.

But I have to ask why you had your camera set to f/20? I've only ever seen people do that for very long exposure, night-time shots to get those long trails of light from cars and such. Were you using auto-focus? Having the aperture set so small can cause issues with that and some cameras will not autofocus.

Thank you! Yes, hand held. I had been playing with settings and testing them on some ducks on the pond, when I heard this guy behind me. Needless to say, I didn't redo any of my settings. Quite a bit of post processing; the original has some horrible blur in it.

jeffashman · Apr 20, 2021

nokk said:
you don't learn if you don't play. shallower dof would be nice, but it looks pretty sharp for being 1/40s @ 300mm. the exposure looks good, the front half of the hawk is in shadow, so i expect it to be darker. if you'd exposed more you would have risked blowing out the top of the hawk's head.

Thank you! I made a note to myself that in future I need take a breath, check my settings, then shoot. It wasn't like this guy was going anywhere. I think he or she may have had an altercation with some crows or ravens, that or it is a very short tailed hawk.

jeffashman · Apr 20, 2021

K9Kirk said:
Not bad. I agree with the others. Also, gotta watch the over use of the un sharp. You're on the right track but if I may suggest, try shooting animals @ f/8 or lower (f/20 is too small an aper. and those limbs behind it don't need to be in focus anyway) to allow for more light and consequently you can increase the shutter speed to avoid camera shake. Try a shot like that on another bird using manual settings of f/5.6 up to f/8, 1/500th up to 1/1600th to get better sharpness and AUTO ISO and compare the differences. GL.

Thank you! Hopeful I'll get another opportunity soon.