Wild Sparrowhawk.

Dale.

Dale.

Bo Derek
Moderator
Messages
11,983
Name
Dale.
Edit My Images
Yes
Spent a day with a buddy in Alan McFadyen's hide today. No sparrowhawks for over 4 hours then we had 5 visits in the remaining 3 hours or so of light.

A long, sometimes cold day but worth every single second.


tp.jpg
 
Last edited:
Superb pair of shots dale ,well done
 
Hi Dale,
Both brilliant shots.
It was a fantastic day, and perseverance paid off.
I've not had a chance to sort out my images yet.
My new battery and car charger arrived this morning though.....
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
Hi Dale,
Both brilliant shots.
It was a fantastic day, and perseverance paid off.
I've not had a chance to sort out my images yet.
My new battery and car charger arrived this morning though.....
Click to expand...


Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for coming. (y)
 
Two "Awesome shots, nothing more to be said.(y)

George.
 
G.K.Jnr. said:
Two "Awesome shots, nothing more to be said.(y)

George.
Click to expand...

Cheers George. (y)


Rustydon said:
Both nailed to perfection, Dale (y)
- of the two I prefer the second for the pose and colour rendition - but that's just me nit-picking as usual!

Russ
Click to expand...

Nit pick away Russ, that's why I'm here for objective opinion. (y)

To be honest, I was fine with the colour of the first one when I posted it on Saturday night. I looked at it again Sunday morning and the colour of it has been bugging my OCD ever since. I've had it back in post but I just can't get it right. I'm not sure if it's too yellow, or green or what. :thinking: it was taken in the best of the light too and maybe it's reflected light from all the greenery present.


Again being honest, I am in love with the second image, it is my favourite of the day. That's the male that visits the hide, he is a stunner, that eye just grabs me everytime. It was an honour to be in its presence and it was skittish at first but he settled quite quickly, staying and feeding for a minute or so. We didn't see him again after that but the female came back twice.
 
Dale. said:
I looked at it again Sunday morning and the colour of it has been bugging my OCD ever since. I've had it back in post but I just can't get it right. I'm not sure if it's too yellow, or green or what. :thinking: it was taken in the best of the light too and maybe it's reflected light from all the greenery present.
Click to expand...
Hi Dale, I've had a quick play with your first image in Lightroom - I just used the "white balance selector" and clicked on the bird's bill, and got this result which seems more representative of the colours you've got in your second and third images. Hope you don't mind - I'll remove my edit if you wish :)
sparrohawk-2.jpg

Russ
 
Last edited:
Rustydon said:
Hi Dale, I've had a quick play with your first image in Lightroom - I just used the "white balance selector" and clicked on the bird's bill, and got this result which seems more representative of the colours you've got in your second and third images. Hope you don't mind - I'll remove my edit if you wish :)

Russ
Click to expand...
No image?
 
Looks like you both had a good day Dale, some lovely shots from both of you.

The OP looked a little yellow to me which you've rectified with your RP (nice work @Rustydon ), only you know how warm the light was on the day itself.

this one has a perfect head angle, nice open beak and the BG looks nicely diffused.

Glad it went well for you

Mike
 
pooley said:
Looks like you both had a good day Dale, some lovely shots from both of you.

The OP looked a little yellow to me which you've rectified with your RP (nice work @Rustydon ), only you know how warm the light was on the day itself.

this one has a perfect head angle, nice open beak and the BG looks nicely diffused.

Glad it went well for you

Mike
Click to expand...


Thanks Mike.

I saw the cast the following day, amazing what fresh eyes can do after a long day before. I didn't even go to bed the previous night, when I know I'm up daft o'clock, I find it easier to get up off the sofa. It catches up with you the following evening though, especially after a few beers.

It was a great day, my second time in this hide but easliy the best. The light was very variable, from dull and grey to strong and bright. We were in the hide from just after first light until the light had gone, the sparrowhawks didn't show up until just before 1pm, then we got 5 vists over the remaining hours.
 
Dale. said:
My take on the first one now
Click to expand...
- you've nailed it now, Dale :)
- I notice your re-edited image is sharper than my own attempt to edit your image. Could this be because you edited an original RAW file, whereas I edited your Jpeg do you think - or have you another explanation?
I ask because all my posted images are never a sharp as I would like when I export my Raw images from Lightroom as Jpegs to this site. Any comments would be appreciated!

Russ
 
Rustydon said:
- you've nailed it now, Dale :)
- I notice your re-edited image is sharper than my own attempt to edit your image. Could this be because you edited an original RAW file, whereas I edited your Jpeg do you think - or have you another explanation?
I ask because all my posted images are never a sharp as I would like when I export my Raw images from Lightroom as Jpegs to this site. Any comments would be appreciated!

Russ
Click to expand...


My 2p on it Russ.

I've quite often found that uploading here can soften images. I have a theory on it and that is the way I was saving my images in PS. It was my bad and what I was doing wasn't helping. I would edit the original RAW file, save it as a TIFF when I was happy with it. I would then save another file of it as a sized jpeg, for web use, mainly FB. I would size the jpeg to 2048 pixels on the longest side by whatever and set the quality to 8, being mindful that images are easily lifted off FB, so I would set the quality to the low end of high. I would then save a 1024 pixels version of the same file for use here and increase the quality of that jpeg as close to 500kb as I could get it, so I was effectively trying to reverse the lower quality setting.

I cottoned on to it little while back and I now save the 2048 version at the highest quality for jpeg, then the version I size and save for here comes out about right when I size it to 1024 on the longest side. I've found that those files upload sharper than before. I'm not sure if there's something in this and it's a little difficult to explain here but hopefully, you see what I'm saying. (y)


I'm sure Mike would be able to advise better on it though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top