Manipulated Bird
Manipulated Hawk
Manipulated Hawk
Read less
Read less
Aperture 63/10 ISO 400 Shutter 1/320 Focal Length 400/1 
Aug, 2016Views
627
Likes
Awards
People's Choice in Hawks Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Superior Skill
All Star
Outstanding Creativity
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1Categories
Platinum
daleigh
November 06, 2016
Congratulations on winning PC on my Hawks Photo Challenge. Amazing detail, well deserved!!
Platinum
Eddieuuu071
May 04, 2017
Thank you so much for submitting your wonderful photo to this challenge! I have added it to my favorites so best of luck!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this shot in my backyard. The hawk was on my neighbors roof and our house is slightly up hill (if you want to call it a hill) from his. So the hawk was about 2 feet above eye level.Time
This was shot at 4 in the afternoon.Lighting
Just all natural lighting. It was nice as he had the catch light without me having to use a flash.Equipment
It was shot handheld with a Canon 5D MK11 with Canon's 100-400 4.5-5.6 L Series lens (the old one). It was shot at f/6.3, 1/320th of a second at ISO 400.Inspiration
My wife came in the house and said there is a really cool bird on the neighbor's roof you should get a photo of it.Editing
Tons of post-processing on this. I made basic adjustments in LightRoom and I then sharpened it with Sharpener Pro 3. Once sharpened I then played with the saturation and luminance of each of the colors in LightRoom. When I was doing so for some reason able to make the whole background bright green. Really useless, however, I dumped it into ON1 Photo 10 and cut the background out with their magic tool. It worked flawlessly with no touch up. Great program when it doesn't crash on me - it does a lot so I don't use it much. Anyway I replaced the sky with one that came with ON1 Photo 10 and that was it.In my camera bag
I store everything in individual cases. I have a lens case for each lens and holsters for camera bodies. When I decide what I am going to shoot I place the individual items I think I may want into a FatMax Tool Box. These are like a low budget Pelican case. Super tough etc. without the extra weight of a Pelican Case and without a pressure relief valve. I have had cases, bags from all companies and this logic works the best for me. Just take what you think you are going to need in the car. Once there if you need something else because you are going to travel far from the car. Just put it in a regular backpack. For birds it is always the same, my 5D MK II and either my Sigma 150-500 or my Canon 100-400. A flash and a better beamer also go with me just in case. Since there is extra room in the box I will bring my 24-105 kit lens. So I am really covered from 24-400 or 24-500mm.Feedback
Personally I think I am decent at photographing birds but certainly not super good as to be so you really need to jump up to the next level of lenses and bodies that are now available. For advice though, I would do this, (I am sure most of you won't) read your camera manual and learn how it tracks moving objects. Most cameras do this, some just better than others. Then I would decide what is the highest ISO I would want to use. I mostly shoot bugs and always shoot at ISO 100, but for birds I shoot at ISO 400 as I want the increased shutter speed. I can go higher but I am happy with my current failure rate of blurry shots do to movement. I then shoot in Aperture Priority and I have never shot a bird above f/8. For me there are two more keys to this and one is time of day - I want it bright and ideally I want a catch light in the eye. If I go out in the morning before it is really bright I always bring a Better Beamer with me. The second thing is going to sound really stupid but I think it made the biggest difference in my bird shots. Keep in mind I don't setup a tripod and wait, I go for a walk and shoot what I see. What I did was I learned a few simple tricks on holding my camera. You can search on YouTube to learn some different methods. One is the old Nikon School one where you use a chain/rope or whatever and attach it to your foot and the bottom of your camera for support. You pull it tight and it works, you can see demo of it online if you search. Another is to use a walking stick that is very long, Grab it up high, extend two fingers and rest the end of your lens on it. Far better than a monopod in my mind as you support both ends and it is super quick to move. The other one is (and I do this a lot) is I use one of those fold up seats you see people use that watch golf. They are just a simple post with a fold out seat, (some have an umbrella build in). You sit down and extend your legs to become the tripod (your two legs and the post - three legs). Then hold your elbow as close to your chest as possible and your hand as far down the lens as you can. Anyway there is a bunch of stuff written on this that describes it better than me, but these simple things made a big difference for me.
