Immature Black breasted Snake Eagle posing

[Mark Wiseman]

I waited for this immature black breasted snake eagle to take off. He would occasionally test his wings and call out. I took this image as he was spreading his wings on the top of a camelthorn tree. I removed a branch on the right hand side of the image.
Camera details:
Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII
EF 500mm f4 LUIS
Aperture f4
ISO 400
Shutterspeed 1/4000
Exp comp +0.7
Image processed in ACR and CS5
Any comments and help welcome.

:bg3:

[Randy Stout]

Mark:

The light quality is wonderful. The near wing shows great detail, great eye.

The head angle seems a bit awkward. I know it is natural, just not elegant looking to my eye. The shadow on the rear wing does give nice contrast for the head and it stands out well.

There are some visible sharpening halos, esp. noticeable along the primaries on the near wing and the tail feathers.

There is also a diagonal line of darker background angling up on the right, just off the tail, perhaps where the branch was removed. Might want to try and blend this in a bit more.

An impressive fellow, hope to see more.

Cheers

Randy

[Mark Wiseman]

Thanks Randy for your help.
I can see the diagonal line to the right where I removed the branch, so that will have to improve and I will have to blend it in better with a mask.
The "halo's" that you see , I think are more associated with the way the shadows were handled in the conversion from RAW to tiff files. I use a luminosity mask for sharpening and as I believe using a lightness mask to sharpen does not give one halo's as in the normal conventional way of sharpening. I will no doubt have another go and check on further images when they are sharpened. My stongest point I have learned so far is that one has to get the image correct in the camera and then do as little as possible in processing to develop the image.
Thanks for your input Randy.
:5

[gail bisson]

My stongest point I have learned so far is that one has to get the image correct in the camera and then do as little as possible in processing to develop the image.
Thanks for your input Randy.
:5
I couldn't agree more!I have learned this lesson as well!
I love the light and the wingspread. I am OK with the head. I agree about redoing the area where the branch was cloned out. Nice shot,
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good points already mentioned, and I would also like a looser comp (more room below and right if you have it). Beautiful subject and a nice view of the large wing.

[Arthur Morris]

Killer pose and I love how the head is set against the shadowed part of the wing. And yes, the right BKGR is a mess. Here is a brand new trick that I have come up with. Paint a big Quick Mask over the messy area of blue without going onto the bird. Put it on its own layer and run a Gaussian Blur of about 237 on it. It will blur its way onto the bird so add a layer mask and tidy up the edge of the bird. I'd also like a good amount more canvas right to effectively move the bird back in the frame.

[Mark Wiseman]

Thanks all for your help, especially Artie for a solution to the difficult branch removal on the right. As mentioned I did the blur, made a mask and extended the canvas. This is the repost, what do you think of the change?
:cheers:


101532

[Arthur Morris]

Except for a tiny white halo around the tail--I think--the repost is 1000 times better. You can e-mail Denise for her "Improved Protect and Defend Cloning on a Layer" tutorial and make it 100% perfect. I just love the new COMP with the added canvas.

[Mark Wiseman]

Dear Artie and Denise,
Thank you for your help and solutions. They are gratefully appreciated. I made a selection of the bird and placed it on it's own layer. I then went back to the original layer, made selections using a quick mask and using gaussian blur completed the corrections in the background and finally merged both layers. After that, it was the canvas extension and voila!!!!! What do you think? I am now happy.

101611
:cheers:

[Arthur Morris]

Fantastic. Learning is a process! You really cleaned up the area by the tail nicely. If someone could figure out how to use Refine Mask to select tiny fuzzy feathers--I have seen it done--you could lose the stick up the butt....