Golden Eagle up close

[Gerald Kelberg]

Thanks for the feedback and interest in my previous Golden Eagle image.

Here is another image of the same male bird taken in Norway in January of this year. The bait was placed closer to the hide and so he was very wary - didn't arrive until the light was fading - of course.

So it meant a relatively low shutter speed and high ISO at 3200. But I think the noise is mitigated reasonably well.

Canon EOS-1D Mk IV, EF500mm f/4L IS, Extender 1.4 III for 700mm.
1/400 sec at f/5.6 with ISO at 3200.
Converted in DPP3 and taken in to PS5 for optimisation - opening up some of the darker tones without adding to the noise. Tree stump on the right needed to be shortened. Two rounds of Dfine for NR on the background, small amount of NR on the bird itself. Slight crop off left and top.

Comments and suggestions very welcome.

Thanks for looking,

Gerald

[Loi Nguyen]

Awesome looking bird. Hard to be this close to a Golden Eagle. The bird is a little bit big in the frame, would like to see more room all around. Loi

[Bob Smith]

A really fine portrait of eagle Gerald. I'm amazed at how well you've dealt with the noise at that ISO and the clarity of colour from such late day light.

[Gerald Kelberg]

Thanks for your comments - Bob and Loi.

Loi, in most cases, I would agree about it being big in the the frame, but on this time around it was actually a "creative" choice - I wanted to have the bird big and filling the frame to emphasise the bulk and power of the bird - up-close and personal. Showing the bird in its broader environment was the task of other shots.

By the way, I have really enjoyed your series of Burrowing Owls - beautiful work.

Regards,
Gerald

[Dvir Barkay]

nice shot, I like it being this close, would have been amazing if you could see a bit more of the fox or at least a more recognizable body part. The noise is still a problem, its there in the backround, and on the eagle. I did some more noise reduction, I tried the best to reduce the noise while not making the feathers look mushy, if I had the tiff, I am sure I could do better.
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[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Dvir,

Thanks very much for taking an interest and doing some NR work on the image. I can see that you certainly made a difference. I'll have to go back to my file and see if I can tweak a bit more out of it also. Much appreciated!

There was a part of a tree stump right in front of the fox - which was a bit of a shame. I want the image to get across the bulk, power and dominance of the Eagle and I think it works on that level.

Regards, Gerald