Help with dynamic range

[Scott Dart]

Shot this bald eagle at sunrise. The eagle is quite a bit underexposed, and Mt. Rainier in the background is pretty over exposed (the sun was hitting it directly while the eagle was still under cloud cover).

I'm wondering what I can do to salvage the photo and bring out the detail in both the eagle and the mountain? I've messed with the exposure in Lightroom, but I feel as though I've just managed to give the whole photo a 'washed out' appearance.

I'm also open to advice on how to make the original capture better. I stopped down to f/11 to try and get the mountain more in focus, but it's still quite blurred. What kind of aperture would you recommend to get both the foreground and the background in focus?

Thanks!

Canon 1D Mark III
70-200 f/2.8L IS + 1.4x TC shot @ 125mm
ISO 500
AV Mode: 1/400, f/11

[Desmond Chan]

Something like this but more refined?

[Meint Sijp]

Hi Scott Not togood at this just wanted to say i like this shot and the composition.
ToDesmond could you please axplaine what you did to make the shot look like this. :)

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Scott,
Nice composition on your eagle, but for my taste, I would go with a vertical on this one; and take off a tad from the left side of the frame...

[Tim Vidrine]

Hi Scott,

I'm no expert, but I've run into this situation a time or two. If you are shooting in raw, I used a technique I found on the web by using two different versions of the converted Raw file. One converted for the highlights and the other converted for the shadows. These two files are then combined in Photoshop. I don't remember the actual steps, but you should be able to find it on the web. It was pretty simple and worked for my images.

[Alfred Forns]

Tim has the answer for the processing !!!!

Do one linear conversion and one regular. Then copy one image onto the other and paint away the dark areas. You can adjust the brushes opacity and best to select a soft edge brush. Really very simple.

For making the image in oder to have the bird sharp and the bg would try something different. Make two separate exposures with one focused on the bird the next at infinity. Usually is best to do the close up first since all you need is to rotate the lens all the way. If the bird is still there should be no problem. Afterward just combine the two images. Same technique as before blending the images !!!

Desmond I like you re post Has a real nice feel !!! I like how you accentuated the layer look !!!

[Harold Davis]

hi scott!! awesome image. i worked on it for you a little bit. love everything about this one. excellent bg and the foreground element of the eagle is just perfect!! i worked on it with Capture NX using the color control points. you can go into different areas of the photo and work each different color profile. i think i used about six different points. the different shades of the mountains, the sky, the mountain and the head and body of the eagle. then color balanced it. there seemed to be a bit of a bluish tone to it. slight crop on the right side to remove the house that was on the edge of the frame.

hope you like it. it's just another way to do it!!

[Scott Dart]

Thanks for all of the wonderful suggestions everyone! I did shoot in RAW, so I will try 'developing' the image multiple times for different exposures, and trying to merge the results.

It never occurred to me to 'bracket' the shot for focus. I was on a kayak (not the most stable platform!), and the bird was relatively still (for a few minutes anyway), so that's something I'll definitely try next time as well.

Great tip on cropping out the house as well, such a small adjustment makes a big difference

As a Canon shooter, I've never used Capture NX, but it sounds like a very interesting program, I'll have to check it out

I'll get to work on v2 of this shot, and post a reply with the finished product

[Desmond Chan]

Desmond could you please axplaine what you did to make the shot look like this. :)

It turned out that different parts of this photograph could be selected pretty easily. I used quick-selection in CS3. The different parts that I selected are:

Water
Body of the eagle
White feather/head of the eagle
Shoreline up to the top of the tree-line
The rest: i.e., sky and the snow covered mountain.

After that, it is just a matter of adjusting the contrast/Levels and colors, etc., of the different parts to your liking. For my repost, I didn't refine the edge of the selections but you should to get much better result.

To get more details in the sky and the mountain, I duplicated that part and changed the blending mode to multiply. Then adjusted the opacity.

[Alfred Forns]

Great thread guys !!!!!!

[Harold Davis]

scott, one other thing that could have helped in this situation is the use of a graduated neutral density filter. it would have given you the opportunity to properly expose the lighter mt rainier and the eagle at the same time. i know alfred is going to not like this suggestion very much.:o i dont think he likes filters!!!:(:(:(:D

[James Shadle]

Scott,
You image is 1024 wide. Would you please resize to our maximum size of 800 pixels.

Thanks James

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great composition on the image, and excellent reposts from the guys.