Bald Eagle Portrait
Taken on an overcast morning so just went ahead with the bright sky, not sure if this qualifies as High Key or not. Beak is a tad messy from his morning breakfast of mallard that he had in the tree.
Canon T3i, Tamron 150 - 600mm, 600 mm, f/8, 1/640, ISO 800, HH, AF I'm not at my usual computer so all editing, sharpening, done in PS CS4.
I'd be delighted to be this close to a Bald Eagle! CS4 is before Process 2012 in the raw converter, which might be a help here with tonal detail. I'm sure you'll have another look at it when possible. Sounds like you're up in the"north woods"? Maybe on a laptop, too?
The eye and beak are wonderfully sharp but the feathers on the head seem soft -- some movement? There is some tonal flatness in the body, too. Even in soft light I like to bring out what I can without getting into too much noise, although working against a white sky isn't easy and can give a cutout look to the edges.
I'd also have a look at a bit less warmth -- the feathers look a little too blonde, but I'm not that familiar with these guys.
Hope you have a chance for more of this one! I may have a lead on some in another month or so.
Thanks Diane, yeah on a laptop and have to use a converter on the raw files so I can even open them on this machine. Up in northern MI just below the Straits. We have a pair of these that I see nearly every day but they are usually so high up in the trees that it is hard to get a good close up. For this one he was in a different tree and only about 30 feet up. I can't explain the softness on the feathers on the head, perhaps he was moving a bit, but in all of the shots those feathers appeared that way even though the body feathers and beak were sharp. Hopefully they'll give me more opportunities and the light may be better to sharpen everything up! And yes, I will be revisiting these when I get back home to my MAC!
Maybe their head is just that way, with very downy feathers. I've never been close enough to one in good enough light to be sure. Artie has a BE on his blog today with a similar look. I have a feeling that in either his post of yours, a little more detail, and thus perceived sharpness, could be brought out in the whites. Also in the body feathers in yours, but working on a laptop with older software is a handicap. I've recently upgraded my laptop to a Retina Mac Pro and it compares decently to my high end NEC monitor on my desktop Mac Pro.
Also some good info here about working in manual mode.
http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2015/...n-manual-mode/
Hi Warren, I think the soft focus in the image may have come from too slow a shutter speed. You did not say if you were using a tripod so I am assuming that you were not. The crop factor of your Cannon T3i is 1.6, that makes 600mm have an effective full frame focal length of 960mm. Unless the camera was supported by a good tripod 1/640 is quite slow. Hand holding now with the high resolution sensors about double the full frame focal length is suggested, so that would put the shutter speed in the range of 1/2000 to hand hold that camera and lens using 600mm.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
www.amazinglight.smugmug.com
Good point, Joe. I was using my 600 + 1.4X (840mm) yesterday shooting an osprey posed in a tree and was on a heavy-duty Gitzo tripod, legs spread out firmly, on hard ground. I had a Wimberley II head, locked down, and was reaching forward and using the lens hood screw to hold tension to reduce vibration and had the camera body pressed firmly against my face. Also had IS on. I was using the 7D2 in silent shutter mode to hope to minimize mirror slap. I kept the SS at 1/1600 and went to 1/2000 as fog began to clear. The subject was still enough that at one point I went to Live View and a remote release (still holding things as before to damp vibration), and I could see a subtle improvement in sharpness.
Hand holding actually solves some of the issues of a tripod with a long lens, in that you don't have a pivot point around which things can "ring." Resting the lens firmly on a beanbag is probably even better than a tripod when possible. I prefer to rest the hood on it -- definitely not the lens foot and not the focus ring unless it is firmly taped so it can't rotate.
The crop factor of the camera isn't really a consideration. Pixel density would be, but that's maybe getting into "sub-pixel peeping."
All good points Joseph and Diane, here is hoping I get another chance to be that close to him and I'll try the tripod out.
Looking at it again, the beak, eye and catchlight look good, though. The 1:1 view of the raw file in LR is the way to judge -- with just the default 25 sharpening setting. Some will always be sharper and some softer, in a session, even with the same settings.
Hope he gives you some more chances!
I'll be checking it out on my MAC when I get back. It seems strange to me as well that the beak and eye are sharp as well as the body feathers yet the head feathers appear soft.Originally Posted by Diane Miller
I think this is some corollary of Murphy's Law (and not Alan) that some parts of an image can appear soft when surrounding areas are sharp! Back in my photo club days I once entered a nice sharp shot of a white pelican in flight. The camera was at about its 10:30 position so both wingtips were quite visible and well separated in distance. The eye and the feathers on both wings were all tack sharp, but the feathers around the neck and chest showed very little detail. The judge insisted, with some rather strong criticism, that the image was soft. It won anyway, and at the end we had a period where the makers of the winning images tell a little about them. I politely pointed out that the two wingtips were both sharp, one well behind the head and one closer, and that the eye and beak were sharp, and that the bird was in a slow glide with no other motion, and that the SS was high. The judge, noticeably pouting, insisted that the image was soft because he thought some of the feathers were ill-defined.
A typical Kamera Klub experience.
That's great!
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