Red-tailed Hawk's dinner

[kimberly]

I was on my way home from our July meeting and this guy flew right infront of me. Of course I had to see what he was up to. Did not realize he was having dinner.

Taken with Nikon D200- 300mm- 1/100sec f/5.6 with flash

[rpk717]

Kim,

What a great opportunity, wish I would run across something like this and have a subject that is tolerant of your presence like this guy seems to be. Nice use of the flash, had you not mentioned it I wouldn't have thought you had used it which is what you want.

There are a couple things you might want to try with this image. I would crop it some more, especially to get rid of the corner on the lower right. Then I would use Curves to brighten the image or maybe even better Highlights/Shadows to lighten the dark ares [including the hawk]. Another thing is if you shot this in RAW, then you can brighten it quite a bit by changing the White Balance.

Overall a nice image but I think it could be improved in Photoshop.

[kimberly]

Thanks for the tips- I did try some of those- what do you think?

[jckegley]

That is a nice photo. It doesn't look like the bird was too high either since you can see his food fairly well.

I agree with Robert, good use of flash. Actually any use of flash will impress me. I am terrible at it. I also agree that lightening it up in Photoshop might make the image look better (as long as the lightening doesn't expose too much noise).

[jckegley]

Hmmm, you must have posted just before my post.

I think that looks better and not too much added noise.

[kimberly]

Thanks for the tips!!

[rpk717]

The re-post shows more detail and the crop was a definite improvement. I would go a little further with Curves and see where it takes you. Just click on the center of the bar and drag it a little bit toward the left at about a 30-45° angle. If you don't like it don't save the change. That's what I love about Photoshop, it's all about experimentation.

[barmstrong]

Very nice catch, Kim. Awesome to get that close.

[Photobiologist]

Neat shot! Glad he cooperated!

Yep, the reworked versions look better.