The Judges

[Robert Kimbrell]

A7R4 400 2.8
1/2000, F8, ISO 400, Eagles were Baited.
I have not posted here in Quite a while. I hope to get back to it. A recent trip to Homer, one of the rare shots I made the 400mm. The Back drop was a shaded Cliff.

[David Roach]

Love, love, love this canvas. The framing, the textures in the perch, the spotlight effect and mostly all those faces emerging from the dark BG in a sinewy diagonal through the frame. Congrats and looking forward to more. TFS

ps
Love the varied and excellent HAs.

[Randy Stout]

Robert:

Nice way to make your return! David hit the high points well. The shape and texture of the rock , dark background, poses of birds, all work well.

I could see an version with the darks pulled up just a bit on the birds, so that they are a bit better defined against the dark background, but do like it as posted.

Looking forward to more.

Cheers

Randy

[William Dickson]

This definitely has the WOW factor Robert.....Love everything about it. the perch is awesome and the eagles look great..Neat HA's as well. I can see where Randy is coming from re the birds being a little brighter...but really loving the OP. Glad yer back....Well done and TFS.

Will

[Brian Sump]

This photo has some extreme appeal Robert. Fantastic capture!

I concur with Randy that you could bring the birds up and still retain every bid of the ominous appeal.

TFS!

[Bill Dix]

I love the idea of this one, and the comp is great. I had the same thought as Randy when I first looked at it, and like the RP. I might have experimented with even a bit more lifting, but not so much as to rob the frame of the original idea.

[Volkan Akgul]

ı applause.. .

[Dorian Anderson]

Yeah, this was the opportunity of opportunities! I've never had a shot at ONE eagle, so I'm really envious of this frame. I think you have plenty of headroom to add more light - event to the repost. I'd raise the levels until
I saw the first suggestion of detail in the BG. That would help define the birds and unblock some of the darker areas. The white heads are gonna crack even with more light. Regardless, this is a very, very memorable image.

[gail bisson]

This is a terrific shot. It is so dramatic and moody with a hint of "scary and ominous" in it.
Great perch, eagle position and HA's.
Image has huge visual impact.
Well done!
Gail

[Randy Stout]

Dorian:

I took a pass at raising the blacks before I did my repost. They are completely blocked, no detail there, even with +4 stops!

Randy

[John Mack]

Love this. All around a stunner. Framing and placement of the birds in the frame is dead on. Love that black background or blackground. A nice pose on all the birds as well.

[Robert Kimbrell]

Thanks so much for all the replies. They are always much appreciated. Here is a rework with the shadows lifted slightly.

[arash_hazeghi]

I like this shot, nice presentation with good AH for all. dark plumage is lost in the BG however, I would raise the exposure until we can see a clear outline for each bird. not sure if RAW has more details

TFS

[Brian Sump]

Robert, repost is better on the bodies of the birds for sure. Now you can clone out the details in the bkg to keep that all black shadows feel.

One more idea is to take a mask brush and brush away certain parts of the silhouette of the birds where there is a hard line from the shadows (i.e. chest on #2 from left, left shoulder on #3 and back on #4). Most of the chest and backs already disappear but you can bring that effect across the canvas.

I keep coming back to look at this.... so good

[Steve Kaluski]

A very striking image Robert, but based on the OP there is still a lot more to come out if that's what you want, but some of the darks/blacks are lost I think, but as Arash mention, there is probably more within the Raw. I just pulled the OP into LR.

I like the thinking here.

TFS
Steve

[David Roach]

Very cool technical discussion and re-posts drawing out the details but I still like the OP way better. Much more impactful IMHO.