Bald Eagle In Flight

[Paul Kammen]

Went back to my favorite local "eagle spot" and have many more to go through, but trying to process a little differently. I do initial edits now in Capture One, then move over to PhotoShop. Still getting the hang of that program, but very happy it easily exports to PhotoShop.

I am finding Topaz DeNoise to be a great tool as well; I also have Neat Image which works great, but I tend to get lost in the layers and finer points of it.

Thanks for any feedback, I think the D500 and 800 combo did a nice job tracking this eagle overall.

D500, 800mm, 1/2000, f5.6, ISO 800

[David Roach]

Perfect BG to show off this beauty. Your exposure/PP looks super spot on for my taste. TFS

[Aditya Sridhar]

You've nailed the exposure on the head, Paul. The background's good and sharpness (on the head) is excellent. However, there are a few things that seem to have gone wrong in PP.

1) Compositionally, the bird's a bit too tight in the frame for my taste, particularly at the bottom. You could try a looser crop with more space on the LHS and the bottom.

2) The image is too heavy on contrast, especially on the bird's chest and under-wing, where the Blacks have no detail and are completely blocked. Going easier on the contrast will really help (Capture One's sliders can be quite heavy-handed).

3) I like the smooth background as a result of the NR, but it has caused a noticeable concentric posterization artifact. The details on the bird itself. particularly the under-wing, have been obliterated by the software. I would recommend running NR selectively on the background (heavy) and on the bird (lighter NR). This should preserve all the details on the bird while minimizing noise on the background.

As a side note, I've tested DeNoise AI and compared it to Neat Image. I find the former causes weird artifacts, which could, perhaps, be the reason for the concentric circles. I hope this helps :)

[Mike Poole]

Some really good points to this shots Paul, and a few bits that need some attention.

Looks like you got the exposure bang on for the whites in the head. There is a little more detail that can be extracted there but the base is good. I did a curves adjustment just from this frame and pulled out extra detail.

With that exposure I wold imagine that the darks could be really nice as well. However, I think you've been a bit too heave handed with the sliders, and the blacks are too deep and have lost detail.

Sharpness looks bang on the money. The far wing position is perfect, a pity the near wing is flat - maybe you have a different one in the sequence with a fuller downstroke. Maybe not!

I do like this shot though, one of your nicest to date

Mike

[Paul Kammen]

Thanks for the feedback, I do have other images to choose from too. Did it again and a little less reduction on the blacks.

[Paul Kammen]

Here is another from the series. ISO slightly higher, 1100.

[William Dickson]

I agree with all the great advice previously by Aditya and Mike.....Your repost does look better...A lower down stroke on the near wing would make a big difference ....Lovely shot

Will

[William Dickson]

I must have posted at the same time....Yes the last post is a so much better POV...Love the detail you got. Nice BG. Pretty good flight pose.

Well done Paul

Will

[Randy Stout]

Paul:

Excellent advice from Aditya and Mike. The reposts were both improvements. The last image is very sweet. I like the natural vignetting effect from the variation in the trees. Look forward to more.

Randy

[Paul Kammen]

I must have posted at the same time....Yes the last post is a so much better POV...Love the detail you got. Nice BG. Pretty good flight pose.

Well done Paul

Will

Thanks, I'm getting the hang of the new software and trying to not over-contrast, and be mindful of the blacks and whites on these winter birds. I'm sure part of it is being hard-wired to processing Canon files the same way too.

I actually do like Topaz Denoise quite a bit, and think you can adjust it quite a bit and it works well in conjunction with some of the other NIK filters I use (detail extraction, contrast color) and the Topaz sharpening tool

[William Dickson]

Thanks, I'm getting the hang of the new software and trying to not over-contrast, and be mindful of the blacks and whites on these winter birds. I'm sure part of it is being hard-wired to processing Canon files the same way too.

I actually do like Topaz Denoise quite a bit, and think you can adjust it quite a bit and it works well in conjunction with some of the other NIK filters I use (detail extraction, contrast color) and the Topaz sharpening tool

I would be aware of these 'plugins' some work, some don't ...I think PS has enough without them.

Will

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Second image is quite nice. Agree with the points.

Trick with any processing software specially filters is be subtle about it.

TFS

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Paul, I guess I wonder why you saved the best for last. The wind position, the background and processing are much better. Nice eagle frame. Thank you for sharing.

[John Mack]

Man, that last post is right on. Pose,background and image quality is very nice.

[arash_hazeghi]

the image in pane 6 is much better than the OP, I'd delete the OP and focus on the image in pane 6. it is great as is, nothing more nothing less

TFS