Shikra or Eurasian Sparrowhawk???

[Bibhav Behera]

Shot this in Dudhwa NP a few weeks back. There are a lot of distractions in this image especially the branch blocking the bird. I tried moving to the right but the bird flew by that time. However I liked the eyes.
This is Full Frame and was shot handheld.
Comments and Critiques welcome.

Canon EOS 1000D, Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x II Extender
SS 1/100
f/8
ISO 400

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice image Bibhav, Steep angle. Certainly shikra to me.

Roopak

[Mrudul Godbole]

The eye contact is nice. The image looks a bit over sharpened to me. Agree it would have been good if the branch in front was not present. Thanks for sharing.

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Lovely image Bibhav, great eye contact. Wihs you would have got it open. It's Shikra

tfs

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I agree with the previous comments. A lower angle would have been nice. Slightly more contrast will be better.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Bibhav Behera]

Thanks for the comments.
Mrudul: The sharpening was set to standard sharpen for screen. I guess the contrast makes it look a bit oversharpened.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The details in the image seem to be less, primarily due to lower shutter speed. Increasing the contrast also gives an impression of sharpness. However, higher contrast doesn't give an impression of oversharpening. While sharpening during post processing, increase the sharpness till you start getting zagged edges and then lower it a bit. For some images, the combination of sharpen for screen option while exporting in lightroom, needs to reduced. Else, it results in artifacts.

Where was the focus point?

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Bibhav Behera]

The focus was on the eye in this image. The DOF was low hence it hasnt covered the plumage i guess. Thanks for the sharpening tip.