Is my amateur attempt for the birds?

[lguthrie]

This is my first time on DPS. Hope I am doing this correctly. This was taken from about 40' away on a fire escape into a tree. Thought this might be an interesting one to start with. I use a Canon Rebel XSI-

[zona5101]

Welcome!
That is a great shot. It would be nice it there was a little more detail on the face. You might be able to brighten up the shadowed chest a tad...but a nice, crisp shot interestingly framed by the branches and nice dept of field!

[photo]

Welcome!

I agree that the face should be brighter and the blurred branch cutting across the bottom of the photo really distracts me!

Ps. Also in the guidelines it says theat they want you to add some exif data.

[lguthrie]

I assume you mean "exit data"! I'm sorry, not exactly sure what I need. I searched it in the forum and didn't see anything. Would you mind explaining so that I can be sure I am following the guidelines? Thanks!

[Jamie Hickey]

Welcome to DPS! This is an awesome place to learn some tricks to the trade. The resources in here are endless. Great shot of the hawk you have captured. With some post work you could brighten it up a bit and maybe make it a bit sharper. Never the less, good job.

[sk66]

Along with the required exif data (and it is exif. look into the "more properties" link on flickr and it "should" give you aperture, camera, focal length etc etc. That's the exif data)
A specific question is *generally* required.
As for the pic, there are several areas it *could* be improved...but one of the primary areas is minimizing distractors. One way of doing this would be to copy the image to a new layer, give it a blur, and then erase everything but the hawk.

[lguthrie]

Thank you so much for your help. I've just started working with Photoshop. I really appreciate your input.

[joyjoy]

Great capture of the hawk. I am new to DPS also and I found your questions and the answers you received very information. Thank you for sharing. Joy