Peregrine Portrait

[Artshot]

This somewhat rare Falcon took an interest in the mirror of my lens and let me take a few photos. Mostly played around with exposure, dodging, and burning to make the final image. I was too close to get any more of the bird in focus. Curious to know if I'm on the right track with my PS efforts.

Reflex 500mm f/8 1/600 ISO 800

[Shadowman]

Not bad, a bit of color fringing and noise in the background.

[NorthernFocus]

Pretty good detail on the bird. As John said the sky is awfully noisy. There is a bit of a halo around the right side of the bird's neck(i.e.left of frame). Also I think you missed on your ID.

[Wavelength]

This guy has an attitude; i liked this; i think if the back ground is darker it will help one to focus attention more on the bird

[rudi]

Pretty good detail on the bird. As John said the sky is awfully noisy. There is a bit of a halo around the right side of the bird's neck(i.e.left of frame). Also I think you missed on your ID.

+1: I think it is a Red tailed hawk, perhaps a Red shouldered hawk (though I do not know iff they stay up north in winter).
Best ask a local specialist, iff you want to know.

[Artshot]

Your right about the ID, I missed. There are a pair of Peregrines living near by that have large number tags on the top of their wings. I see them once or twice a year.
This bird also has the large tag as well as the leg band. No wonder they don't like people much.
Thanks for the comments on noise. I would think it should be easy to fix, but at this point I'm not sure how to go about it.

[Geoff F]

What I often do with background noise is to apply a selection to the problem area (possibly with one or two pixels feather) then use some noise reduction adjustments just on that area.

Another simple alternative is to go over that area with a Blur Brush, using appropriate settings.

I frequently put a selection around the main subject then sharpen just that area and invert the selection to apply a bit of noise reduction filter to only the background. The auto selection brush usually works for me, with a little bit of cleaning up extra strokes.

[Artshot]

Thanks for the tips Geoff, a really quick fix followed by a half hour cleaning up the edges. Could spend all day trying to get every feather in place, but I'll save that for a better photo.




Just to keep things honest
This is a Peregrine Falcon that I found in a tree outside of the Olympic ice arena about one year ago. Have not seen him since.

[Geoff F]

That is a much cleaner background sky now. Art.