Golden Eagle in Flight

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi -

This is from a recent trip I made to Wyoming with my family. I saw this Golden Eagle on a fence post near Saratoga, WY and we stopped in time for me to get some shots of it flying past.

I'm not 100% certain it's a Golden Eagle, but it seemed too large to be an immature Bald Eagle.

Canon 7D
Canon 400mm f/5.6

Manual Exposure mode
ISO 400
SS 1250
f/5.6

I did some slight sharpening of the bird's head and a little selective noise reduction on the background.

Thanks for your comments.

Ashleigh

[dankearl]

Hi Ashley,
This is an immature Bald Eagle I think.
Your focus was on the near wing, but still a nice flight photo.
I cropped, toned down the Bg a bit and ran some noise reduction on the BG. Hope you don't mind.
I could not get the head any sharper, the focus was just not there.
Glad you got to take this and post it for us.

golden_eagledk.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=131048&stc=1&d=1375500399)

[Arthur Morris]

Taking over from where Dan left off I got rid of the light strip at the bottom, ran some NIK Color Efex Pro stuff and a Contrast Mask on the face, and lightened the whole thing a bit. File size could have been larger unless this was a big crop. And Dan is right about the focus on the near wing--the face is nowhere near critically sharp.

[Arthur Morris]

ps: yes to juvie Bald Eagle.

[Bill Dix]

Hi Ashleigh. Good work catching this guy as he went past. I like the environment shown here, and for that reason prefer Dan's repost in pane #2; especially since the IQ on the head doesn't hold up as well to the larger crop in Artie's repost (although I do think the other tweaks by Artie helped the image.)

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi everyone.

Thank you for your helpful comments, and for identifying this bird as an immature bald eagle. My Dad is embarrassed because he told me it was a Golden. Oh well, maybe I'll find one next year.

Here is a screen capture from Aperture showing where my single AF point was. Because it's closer to the head, I thought the head would be sharp, and not the near wing. Can someone explain why the near wing would be sharpest, when the AF point is on the beak?

Maybe I should be using Zone AF instead on some BIFs, but the field behind the bird here had lots of farm equipment in it and I didnt want to lose the focus.

I also was shooting from inside the car hand-held with no beanbag so that also makes the bird blurry.

Thanks, Ashleigh

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Great Job getting this flight shot Ashleigh and I think each repost addressed the issues and put the image on top. Nice job in you panning with focal point on the head... not easy to do. I am curious, was this hand held? Can't tell you about the focal point issue but it does happen. Perhaps the bg was a little too busy for the af?

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi Cheryl,

yes, I was hand-holding from the back seat of our car. I couldn't brace the lens on the window very well so I held it.

It was a lot of fun driving those roads in Southern Wyoming looking for raptors on posts and light poles. There were lots of them!

Thanks for your comment.

[Loi Nguyen]

Ashley, I think this is one of your best flight shots. My first impression on the original was tat the BG was a bit distracting, which Dan and Artie both addressed. I personally like Artie's RP better because it is a simple design that orbs well for a flight shot like this one. The screen capture shows that the AF point was not right on the bird, hard to say exactly where the focus plane was. Your SS was also a bit slow for a BIF unless you pan perfectly, which is also hard. You could have increased the ISO to 800 and SS to 1/2500. With selective noise reduction, ISO-800 should be OK. Well done I say. Loi

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Hi Cheryl,

yes, I was hand-holding from the back seat of our car. I couldn't brace the lens on the window very well so I held it.

It was a lot of fun driving those roads in Southern Wyoming looking for raptors on posts and light poles. There were lots of them!

Thanks for your comment.

I THINK YOU DID VERY WELL HAND HOLDING

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Ashliegh, It is a juvi bald eagle and I like the display of habitat. you did well!!!

If you want to take it to the next level you need to improve image quality. the focus/details do appear quite soft and grainy. The main reason was the size of the bird in the frame. Each of those AF frames is less than 5% of the frame. so the large eagle was really really far for your lens :)

In order for the AF to work effectively and also get sharp details the bird has to occupy at least 1/3 of your frame...AF will not work when the bird is too small in the frame, it will give you random results or lock on the background, especially the AF system in 7D is not very accurate and it will not garb a target so small. Next time try to get closer if you can

:)

best luck

Arash

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Hi Ashliegh, It is a juvi bald eagle and I like the display of habitat. you did well!!!

If you want to take it to the next level you need to improve image quality. the focus/details do appear quite soft and grainy. The main reason was the size of the bird in the frame. Each of those AF frames is less than 5% of the frame. so the large eagle was really really far for your lens :)

In order for the AF to work effectively and also get sharp details the bird has to occupy at least 1/3 of your frame...AF will not work when the bird is too small in the frame, it will give you random results or lock on the background, especially the AF system in 7D is not very accurate and it will not garb a target so small. Next time try to get closer if you can

:)

best luck

Arash
Very good advice Arash for myself as well thanks