365:157 ANDREW HARDACRE

I found a Crested Goshawk nest not far from home. Each morning the birds come out and spend some time in the trees warming up before they go off to hunt. The backdrop is usually a grey sky and the only angle I can shoot from is against the light. I shot this at F11, 1/800s and ISO3200. I run the image through DxO PureRaw to strip away any noise. Then in Lightroom, I used the new ’Select Subject’ tool to raise the exposure on the bird itself and the repeat and invert to lower the brightness of the sky. This gives a more balanced image. I used the Canon R5 and RF 100-500mm zoom with the RF1.4x TC to give me 700mm focal length - the shutter speed is the first setting - minimum at the inverse of the focal length, then stop down a little to sharpen for the zoom + TC factor and the ISO is the balancing item. That’s all there is to it. Easy peasy.