red shouldered hawk

[ramcewan]

Today opportunity came knocking. I took the dog for a walk and was astonished to see this red shouldered hawk in a tree scanning. I brought the dog home, grabbed the camera (should have had it with me in the first place!) and drove back. I got lucky and the hawk was still there.

Here's my first three post processed shots, it's a cold and grey day so the light was a little lacking, please excuse any high iso noise;

a 50% crop

P2028567 by ramcewan, on Flickr



P2028564 by ramcewan, on Flickr


P2028555 by ramcewan, on Flickr

I've got more post processing to do but my time is short so I'll leave it at that for now, thanks as always for checking it out!

[jjdog2]

You did good Ramcewan, cool that he was still there when you got back.

Cold and snowy in Ohio today.

jj

[ramcewan]

Originally Posted by jjdog2

You did good Ramcewan, cool that he was still there when you got back.

Cold and snowy in Ohio today.

jj

Thanks JJ I am super excited to have caught this bird.

It is just cold here, all our snow melted with the warm weather mid week. I think we get your snow here tomorrow though.

Yeah I was lucky this time, but it is a lesson learned that I should have had the camera in the first place.

p.s. I re-sized the flickr links

[ramcewan]

p.p.s. here's one more from the set


P2028558 by ramcewan, on Flickr

[ramcewan]

I lied.. here's one more


P2028556 by ramcewan, on Flickr

[jjdog2]

Hope you don't mind really enjoying the Hawk shots just tried to smooth out the background.

[saly]

That's awesome!!! So happy that he waited for you! I like #2, he stands out nicely against the background.

[ashsdad]

Well done! Congratulations - they look great. Would be interested in what post-processing routines you have - anything customary you do to all or most of your shots?

[ramcewan]

Originally Posted by jjdog2

Hope you don't mind really enjoying the Hawk shots just tried to smooth out the background.

I don't mind at all, I think it improves it a good deal, did you use a blur brush on the background or some other technique?

Originally Posted by ashsdad

Well done! Congratulations - they look great. Would be interested in what post-processing routines you have - anything customary you do to all or most of your shots?

I shoot raw only and first I use Olympus viewer to batch convert to JPG. Then I pick the ones I like for post processing. I have been mostly using GIMP and UFRAW with the following workflow;

1. open in UFRAW
2. adjust exposure
3. adjust the curve (I sometimes use photogenetics curves but over time I've created a few of my own)
4. save as ppm

1. open ppm in GIMP
2. from colors menu; Auto white balance, auto stretch contrast, auto color enhance
3. from scriptfu menu, contrast section I'll usually try the auto contrast and/or shadow recovery if needed
4. from the filters menu, enhance section I apply an unsharp mask
5. I might go back to scriptfu and apply ISO noise correction from the contrast section if needed

make sure you have the GIMP photocomix pack and the gimpfx foundry scriptpack

hope that helps!

Originally Posted by saly

That's awesome!!! So happy that he waited for you! I like #2, he stands out nicely against the background.

Thanks Saly!

[jjdog2]

Originally Posted by ramcewan

I don't mind at all, I think it improves it a good deal, did you use a blur brush on the background or some other technique?

I use this sometimes (it's free) , just have to play around with the settings because it can be a little aggressive.

http://noiseware-community-edition.en.softonic.com/