Martial Eagle, Kenya

[Steve Uffman]

Martial Eagle with prey
Taken Aug 2, 2012 in Lewa, Kenya

Canon 5dIII 500MM f/4 L IS USM on beanbag
1/1250 f/9 ISO 800

LR4, CS6

c & c welcome

[gail bisson]

Hi Steve ,
What a terrific sighting. Good IQ and composition.
The light is quite harsh here and I see a magenta cast.
I would decrease the brightness of the high key sky and reduce the contrast a bit.
The big tree trunk behind the eagle is a bit of a problem as well. Too bad you could not have moved more to the left when taking the image.
Gail
I don't know what your ethics are RE: cloning but I would clone the whole trunk out! Another option would be to go with a vertical to reduce the impact of the trunk.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Steve, very nicely captured. I agree with Gail about the distracting trunk and might consider cloning it out (or maybe reducing the contrast on it).

[Steve Uffman]

Thanks Gail and Miquel for the response

Magenta seems to come in when I try to neutralize the whites using Nik color efex pro 4 white neutralizer. not sure why I even do that as I prefer a slightly warmer image unless around certain colors of water.

Moving was not going to be beneficial...on this shot there was only a tight window to shoot between the trees.

On the cloning, I usually prefer to leave the background more natural but too often that kills the image.....as a result my selection and cloning skills are lagging. However I did do this on a companion image which cleans up the background but not sure the selection, edges and such are properly done...any suggestions would be most welcome.....as I have many from Africa that could benefit from cloning on the background.

Also after cloning out the background, I toned down the white background

Pretty amateurish attempt on my part working on this image, but I must develop this skill

[Steve Uffman]

missed some around the claw that I reworked

[gail bisson]

hi Steve,
I am on my IPad right now so will comment on your repost when
I am back on my regular computer.
as far as cleaning up the BG , here is what I do:
1. duplicate the BG
2. Meticulously select the bird using the magnetic lasso tool -
I zoom into 100% to make sure my selection is perfect. once that is done I will select the refine edges and use the smart radius tool to incorporate the wispy neck feathers.
3.
Hit command J to get a layer with your selection.
4.
Press on duplicate layer and clone away to your hearts content, touching the bird without care till you have gotten rid of unwanted BG elements.
You will not erase the bird as it is protected by your laye
You can click the eye next to the layer 1 to see how bird is protected.
5
Flatten the image
Gail
5

[Steve Uffman]

Thanks Gail for your process. I will try it exactly as you do. I need to bite the bullet and learn the magnetic lasso. and work on meticulous:-). On this one I did a selection then created a layer, then filled with a selected background color. By not being at 100% and going slowly enough I missed some areas.

Will keep working and learning until I get over this hurdle. Again many thanks

[Steve Uffman]

hi Steve,
I am on my IPad right now so will comment on your repost when
I am back on my regular computer.
as far as cleaning up the BG , here is what I do:
1. duplicate the BG
2. Meticulously select the bird using the magnetic lasso tool -
I zoom into 100% to make sure my selection is perfect. once that is done I will select the refine edges and use the smart radius tool to incorporate the wispy neck feathers.
3.
Hit command J to get a layer with your selection.
4.
Press on duplicate layer and clone away to your hearts content, touching the bird without care till you have gotten rid of unwanted BG elements.
You will not erase the bird as it is protected by your laye
You can click the eye next to the layer 1 to see how bird is protected.
5
Flatten the image
Gail
5

Thanks Gail for the input....well, I immersed myself in trying it your way with the magnetic lasso, refine edge, but instead of cloning i did a fill with background color (which I reduced the brightness of the high key) ...did boost vibrance a bit but perhaps too much..Also normally go out of LR as a smart object, this time direct from LR edit in PS....so thoughts? tips and advise? I promise to keep trying until I master this process

[Satish Ranadive]

Steve:
Excellent image of your's has become absolutely superb in your last repost.
We always learn nice lessons from BPN members.Thanks to Gail.
Love every thing in the frame.Seeing for the first time this Eagle.TFS.

Regards,
Satish.

[gail bisson]

Steve,
The last repost is excellent-just back off on the vibrance a bit.
Gail

[Steve Uffman]

many thanks....felt like I learned something yesterday that I will be able to use going forward. Really appreciate the 'boost" over that hurdle!!!!