Juvenile Eagle

[John Goldman]

My first posting.

Juvenile Eagle drying it's wings. Overcast. Photographed from car with a Kirk window mount. Overcast. Cropped for portrait orientation. I cannot decide on the saturation. I've posted a toned down image. Focus seems a tad soft.


Canon 40D
1/160
F5.6 +1/3
ISO 800
Canon 300 2.8 + 2X converter

[CliveTonge]

Hi John,
I was going to suggest that you may improve this image by blurring or desaturating the background, but Peters's repost seems to have covered that too.
Great picture. I look forward to seeing more,
Clive

[John Goldman]

Thank you, Peter and Clive for your input.
re. crop. I appreciate your comment. I still like my crop better. I intentionally left space to the right for him/her to look into. I like the bird higher in the image to convey the feeling of on top of a high perch, which it was. To me, my crop leaves the bird moreso in it's own environment.
re. blur the BG. I had thought about blurring and decided against it. I felt more blur would take away the autumn leaves impression. Again keeping this bird in it's environment rather than some multi-colored un-identifiable BG.
re. unsharp mask. I agree, the bird could/should be sharper. I have Photoshop Elements and I'm not at all satisfied with the sharpen filters results. I must learn to use the unsharp mask. The 125/0.2/0 settings help.
re. "threshold and levels layer to find the whitest and darkest spot in the image, to level them with 12/12/12 black and 244/244/244 white: this will usually take care of any color cast:" I don't know how to do that.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Somewhere in between would be right IMO, the repost is too tight for my taste - interesting thread - great advice all around.

[Lance Peters]

Hi - Great advice from Peter above and usually the setting of a black/white point would be the first step in your workflow, you can also just hold down the ALT key on a levels layer to get to threshold.
I prefer the original - seems a little bit more balanced - agree it needed more sharpening and the black/white point set - BG doesnt bother me.
You have a good HA and eye contact.

A big warm welcome to the BPN Family - nice first post.
Looking forward to seeing more :)

[Alfred Forns]

Hi John Big Warm Welcome !!!!

I like the pose capture and overall exposure, would be good idea to move the bird to the right since you want more room in the side he is looking. Cropping vertically I see your point and the bird would look good with more room.

Color balance wise, Peter is correct in how he does the settings but personally I don't use it much nor like it. When you make a image in beautiful warm light the last thing I want to do is turn into mid day light which is what is happening. In this case I prefer to lower the red channel saturation some since the camera affects it on its own and most often makes it unrealistic.

btw for some fast color correction when it is needed you can install iCorrect Color Lab and simple use the eyedropper on anything that is neutral, just click and by magic its all done for you.... just remember it is not always desirable.

[Harold Davis]

i like your compo with just a little off the left side. looking at it initially, my first thought was that it just needed a little contrast boost. the fall colors in the bg are nice. almost forgot......big welcome to BPN!! solid first post!!!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi John,
A big warm welcome to the BPN family,
I like the capture, this is sweet light, agree with the good advise given. Looking forward to your next one John...:cool:

[James Shadle]

John,
Welcome to BPN!
I gotta tell ya, y'all got a little technical for me.

I decided to do a re-post with a minimalist approach for two reasons.


This is Eager To Learn, not Digital Workflow



The image only needed minimal tweaking(as most do).

I cropped for my taste, made a minor levels adjustment to increase contrast and hit it twice with USM at 42% / .4
That's all.

Looks good as posted, IMO the minor tweaks made in the re-post makes it an even stronger image.

[Harold Davis]

I cropped for my taste, made a minor levels adjustment to increase contrast and hit it twice with USM at 42% / .4
That's all.

i dont feel so bad now. that's exactly what i was thinking!!!

[Alfred Forns]

Most images that is all they need, no sense re inventing the wheel !!! Love the re post Darth Natural and Sweet !!!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I like James repost - digital workflow is still needed in all post production processing

[James Shadle]

I like James repost - digital workflow is still needed in all post production processing


Jeff,
I was referring to technical nature of the critiques. Very detailed, technical workflow discussions are better handled in our Digital Workflow forum.
But yes, all digital images require "workflow", even if the image doesn't need post processing.
Simply getting the images out of the camera is a component of the digital workflow.

[John Goldman]

Yes, the higher contrast re-post seems better but at a price. For me, James's re-post has lost wing detail. If I have to choose, I choose the detail. BTW what's USM?

[Jeff Cashdollar]

They are referencing the Unsharp Mask, a sharpening method found under -->Filter>Sharpen in CS4.

[Kyle Marie Barcelos]

Welcome.. I like the Bird it looks really good, love the colors of the BG but it makes me a little dizzy. i like the crop the Peter did, but there is a swirl in the ULC that you could probably fix. Other then that Great Job, Can't wait to see more..:)

[John Goldman]

Yes, I've seen those same sorts of 'swirls' in some of my other BG's. I don't like them either. Does anyone know what causes them and the solution?