Juvie Bald Eagle - Concentration

[Jay Ing]

A second shot of the Juvie Bald Eagle from Bosque - this one pre-flight. Just before taking to the air he made a nice little downward hunch and raised/stretched his wings. As a full frame, the gesture came out visually odd to me ... but with a tight crop I liked the angular play between the perch and bird. I gave the perch more space than usual because, not showing the whole bird I wanted the eyes and beak raised up in the frame to be the main feature. Going higher starting bringing in the wings and pulled my eye away. Don't know if the crop works but it my "current" best attempt on this one. I know cropping in tight hits the resolution and detail (didn't have the 850 then) but it is what it is. C&C desired. Thanks.

p.s. Arggh, I did it again! MOD can you delete the first shot. In the uploader I delete the first image and upload a second but it keeps both. The difference here is the clone out of the bird poo and a small sliver of the tree turn bottom center and my watermark. Sorry 'bout that!

Details: D500 + Sigma 500/4 with 1.4 TC, can't say too much more than that as I did the initial crop on my laptop and its not on hand just now. Probably something like 1/3200, 7.1 with some amount of EC. HH with railing support.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Jay is the original image sharp? The jpeg presented looks soft to me.
( you may need to microadjust the focus with the lens and TC??)

[gail bisson]

Hi Joel,
I agree that the image is a bit soft. Perhaps due in part to a large crop and upsizing?
Gail

[Jay Ing]

Yes, the original is sharp. The softness as crop and resize related. Here is a smaller and different crop... just never could find da crop I liked - but the one I did effects IQ.

Hi Joel,
I agree that the image is a bit soft. Perhaps due in part to a large crop and upsizing?
Gail

[Jonathan Ashton]

Pane 4 much better suggest lift the darker tones a little I think they are rather dense. (Ensure you embed srgb as the posted profile! Maybe review the method you use as Save for Web I think you have a nice image there.)

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Jay, I guess I would say what do you not like with the crop in your most recent posted image. The soft image in your first post was trying to go tight when the original was not. Beautiful bird, wonderful perch, exposure looks good. Thank you for sharing.