Hen Harrier (Young Male)

FourRingCircus

FourRingCircus

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John
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I'll just leave these here........:D

Taken yesterday and hosted via Facebook. The ring has been investigated and the bird was part of a brood of four males ringed last year in Aberdeenshire. One of his siblings was apparently sighted in Dorset recently too!

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As is always the case when something like this comes along, the light was fairly poor. Both shots were at 8000 ISO! :jawdrop:

1000mm, F11, 1/1600s.
 
A fine looking fella and two great images showing him off beautifully.
 
gramps said:
Nice to see it John, pity about the light :)
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In retrospect, I'm not as unhappy about the conditions as I might have been. I've photographed more than my fair share of HH in the past few years, and I can tell you that sunlight isn't your friend with these guys. ;)
 
FourRingCircus said:
In retrospect, I'm not as unhappy about the conditions as I might have been. I've photographed more than my fair share of HH in the past few years, and I can tell you that sunlight isn't your friend with these guys. ;)
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I've found the same with Marsh Harriers (if not most things with feathers!) but a bit of light adds to available detail and helps avoid the need for high ISO N/R. :)
 
Really like these. The light and detail issues are far outweighed by all other aspects that makes a great photo imo.

Nice one (y)
 
Thanks for the comments gents. I've been after shots like these for a couple of years now, so perhaps I'm going to spend another few years trying to get the same with a lower ISO........ :rolleyes:
 
What a bird and nice photos
 
John

I can see why it has been chosen, because it is an unusual bird to see

but the image is soft and suffers from noise ...... but with your kit the noise situation can be controlled more than some

You can do a little to improve both in pp and clean the image up .. there are artefacts all over the bg, which are really noticeable, and you can (artificially) sharpen the bird a little or to taste

just a quick job, there is something going on around the head which if it was cleaned up would make the head more distinctive

techs would be f11 .......reduce this ..... and shutter speed, 1/1600th sec ........ increase this .. presumably you are running on Auto ISO

my EDIT

Jon_Os.jpg



ORIGINAL as posted
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Lovely shots and the info re the rings and history was interesting and most welcome.
 
BillN_33 said:
I can see why it has been chosen, because it is an unusual bird to see
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Some might consider that to be a back-handed insult, but I'm inclined to agree with you Bill. There are some good female shots on Bird Guides, but most of the male shots there would not have me hitting the upload button. The odd thing is that I can probably go and see a male HH anytime I want, although it would require a significant trek to get there.......;)

BillN_33 said:
techs would be f11 .......reduce this ..... and shutter speed, 1/1600th sec ........ increase this .. presumably you are running on Auto ISO
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Ah, the great sage called hindsight. :p Yes, it's on Auto ISO and I suspect that F8 would have missed the focus entirely. Had it been a better day, I reckon 1/2500 would have worked well, but it was seriously overcast and dull. Your edit has pulled a buit more out than I did, but in all honesty, when you've started with a 1024x768 hosted from Facebook, there's probably little point. Furthermore, there has already been some serious work on my original RAW image which saw a double shot at NR in two different programs. This has given it a softer appearance, but all in all, I'm reasonably content with it for what it is. The second bout of NR did hit the bird a bit, but it really smacked the background which is not good in the original.:banghead:
 
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FourRingCircus said:
Some might consider that to be a back-handed insult, but I'm inclined to agree with you Bill. There are some good female shots on Bird Guides, but most of the male shots there would not have me hitting the upload button. The odd thing is that I can probably go and see a male HH anytime I want, although it would require a significant trek to get there.......;)


Ah, the great sage called hindsight. :p Yes, it's on Auto ISO and I suspect that F8 would have missed the focus entirely. Had it been a better day, I reckon 1/2500 would have worked well, but it was seriously overcast and dull. Your edit has pulled a buit more out than I did, but in all honesty, when you've started with a 1024x768 hosted from Facebook, there's probably little point. Furthermore, there has already been some serious work on my original RAW image which saw a double shot at NR in two different programs. This has given it a softer appearance, but all in all, I'm reasonably content with it for what it is. The second bout of NR did hit the bird a bit, but it really smacked the background which is not good in the original.:banghead:
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Maybe I should not comment if you think that it is a "back-handed insult" -it certainly was not, from me anyway

why would f11 be better at hitting the focus than f8 - presumably you used a 500mm f4 + TC x 2 - surely the reverse is true with contrast detect focusing - the wider the better, especially with long lens and TC's

do you take any shots of BIF's at 1/2500th ...... I think all the ones I have seen on here are at 1/1600th sec ...... it is easy to change the SS while the camera is at your eye

I adjusted your very low res image - there is a limit to what can be done - If you wanted Critique, as you state you do constantly in your signature, (Be brutal with your critique as I want to improve. If it's mediocre or crap - tell me why and I'll be grateful.), why post a poor quality image

I'll stop commenting John, better that way, I'll join most of the rest and just say, "Good shot" or "Like" your image ........ I'm out
 
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Step back from the keyboard Bill - I was agreeing with you!!! o_O

"Some might consider that to be a back-handed insult, but I'm inclined to agree with you Bill."

"Ah, the great sage called hindsight. :p" <--- Spot the attempt at humour..... (Hint - these little cartoon things generally imply friendly banter, most of the time) :banghead:

"I suspect that F8 would have missed the focus entirely." This is my experience with my kit. F8 really hits a single point focus with little DoF

"Your edit has pulled a bit more out than I did"

Jeezo man! I have been perfectly grateful of your critique and I wish more would do the same. The fact that I see little point in working from a small image hosted elsewhere is hardly a complaint. I already know what can/can't be done with such a low res image. All it means is that it's a shame you couldn't start with a 25MB RAW.

Please read my post again and see it for what it is, not as some sort of poke at you - which it certainly was not.:kiss:
 
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