Young African Fish Eagle

[Carl Walker]

This guy was being harassed by black shouldered kites so it eventually decided to move.

I D MK IV, Canon 300mm F2.8L IS USM MK II + 2 X extender

ISO 400, F6.3, 1/3200 sec

DPP work
PSE - Worked on background using clone tool and dodge tool. There was a dark area where the upper vertical wingtip was positioned so I inverted the bird and cloned the area to lighten it and then re inverted.
Worked on adjustment layers and color curves on the bkg and subject - sharpened with Nik Sharpener Pro 3 and again after resizing and SFW.

I left the bits of falling debri from his muddy talons and the perch to indicate some form of movement.
There are some dark areas on outer wing at the back and underneath that has no detail. Not sure I can get it back.

C & C are welcome. Thanks

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Carl,

Greetings. I like the feather detail and the look of the talons with the debris falling from them (there is an odd short blue-green streak just below the lowermost foot that could stand removal). The negative space doesn't work for me, if it were mine I would crop about a 1/3 of the image from the left and about half way from the bottom to the lower foot (becomes a vertical crop). Cropping so would take out most of the areas with color noise, but the middle browns in the feathers on the trailing part of the wing and the top could use some color noise reduction (as can the darker greens in the bg).

Good launch shot. Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Carl Walker]

Michael thanks for the comments. One thing that is seriously hitting home hard is that underexposing wrongly on capture is not doing me any favours and spoiling potential keepers.

I have reposted with your crop suggestion and did a lot of work on background to change it. I tried some NR on the bird but it lacks some detail now. Appreciate your input. Thanks

[John Chardine]

Hi Carl- All personal taste but I like the space on the left myself. Nice capture of action, great detail in the feathers. Good catchlight. I like the repost too as an alternative. Regarding exposure, with a subject like this, it is all too easy to clip the underwing highlights which probably drove you to underexpose slightly and lose the upper leg detail. In the raw image it may be possible to coax some detail out of that area.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Carl - nice dynamic shot. I think both comps work well. With respect to exposure in the field, just keep telling yourself expose to the right (ETTR). It is much easier to recover bright areas in post than to open up dark areas. As you've realized opening up dark areas introduces noise. Most important is to check your histogram in the field. It's difficult with flight shots because if you blow it the first time, sometimes you don't get a second chance with the needed adjustments.

TFS,
Rachel

[Carl Walker]

Thanks John. I'll have a look at that down the line when I'm a bit more confident in what I'm doing. I have already learnt a lot from you guys and just need to keep at it as well upgrading to CS6.

[Carl Walker]

Thanks Rachel. It is only in the last few weeks I have been concentrating on that aspect as well as checking my histogram regularly. Also trying my best to use manual more to master some techniques there as well as exposure basics.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Carl some very good advice above, the only thing I might add is if you know the subject is going to fly, workout which format you are going to run with and pre set your focus points ie left of centre. The original is too far right, it needs more to the RHS. BKG can also play an important roll, but IMHO changing it to a more pleasing one is a bad habit and you have to work with what you have and that may mean changing position where possible.

Keep up the hard work it is paying off nicely, just take your time and if you can, anticipate the move.

TFS
Steve

[Carl Walker]

Good advice, thanks Steve. I didn't really feel happy changing the background at all at the time. Changing position is always there in my thinking but as you know there is always all those other natural elements out there that can catch you off guard no matter how prepared or skilled one is. Appreciate your valued input.

[Steve Kaluski]

Carl, just a thought, but you could double process as Smart Objects tweaking the BKG that way then mask and drop in the bird when you are happy with that. Basically get the BKG right, to your taste, then the bird and combine.