[lepiallou]

I got the chance to catch an European Sparrowhawk taking off, not long ago.

Yet, as I followed the bird in flight the framing is changing, which forced me to put the black lines to cover the empty space and the result is not appealing as I was expecting.

Would you have any recommendations on how to make this look better (maybe the color of the borders? Different framing?)

Full size picture here

Thanks for the inputs!

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[Ben E]

Very nice job. My suggestion is perhaps to rotate the image, and crop it, so that the image will be horizontal, and you won't have any black filler space.

[lepiallou]

Thanks for the input. I did try but it doesn't look the best neither... As the trees in the background are not straight anymore.

Only way I found for now is to print it as it is, cut the black borders and frame it to display in the stairs

[Kerrowdown]

How about this?

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[Ben E]

Kerrowdown, you missed the beginning phase of the sparrowhawk in your crop. Here's the best I could do:

[Kerrowdown]

Kerrowdown, you missed the beginning phase of the sparrowhawk in your crop

Oops sorry, didn't notice it in the trees there.

How about this then, a quick 20 sec edit using the skew tool in PS CC 2014.

[lepiallou]

How about this then, a quick 20 sec edit using the skew tool in PS CC 2014.

Thanks for the tip on the skew tool!
Didn't know about it, and it helps a lot

I made a similar version of what you did and so far I like it.

Thanks Ben E and Kerrowdown

[Kerrowdown]

Thanks for the tip on the skew tool! Didn't know about it, and it helps a lot

Good stuff glad you got it going, it's often how we find out about all cool stuff hidden away in our software, by asking other folk who may have already found it.

[OJGoreng]

I realise this is't the type of critique you're looking for, but: that's an adult male European Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), not a Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus).

I'm not so sure I like the results of the skew tool. It may make the perspective look a bit more regular, but it also causes a pretty severe distortion in the body shape of the kestrel. This may not be very problematic if you're mainly looking at the image as a whole, but if you look at it with birder's eyes, it's a bit disturbing; the wings become too thin and elongated, making it look like a entirely different species. Leaving the trees in slanted position makes the image more dynamic; it suggests you had to take quick action to catch the take-off. I personally like that better.

[Kerrowdown]

the wings become too thin and elongated

I see what you mean, in that case I guess the only solution would be to skew the background to lose the black sections and copy/paste the bird from the original version, using one of the content aware options.