It has been a long time since my last post but I wanted to share some pictures from our last trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone. Here I would like to start with an immature bald eagle. Unfortunately the right wing was clipped a little bit.
Canon 1D Mark II, 500mm f1/4 1/400s ISO 100
C&C's to improve my (our) technique are greatly appreciated.
Great wing detail and sharpness. The clipped wing is easy enough to fix if you're so inclined. Robert O'Toole's disk explains it nicely. I would lighten the iris a little. The bright diagonal line caused by the shore is a little distracting to me. And I might tone down the water a bit.
Ah, the original was so nice and sharp that I spent some time creating something nicer... Let's see what I can remember: expanded canvas with the crop tool, leveled it a bit, filled in with Quick Masks, Patch Tool, and Clone Stamp. Selected water with a Qm and darkened with Linear burn. Lightened face with a QM. Not enough pixels to work on the eye.
If you really want to learn get a copy of our Digital Bascis and Robert O'Toole's APTATS CD. Everything I did is in those two.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Nice action. Too bad about the wing. I might lighten the bird and darken the water a bit. Also I would push your ISO to 200 or 400 for flight images, as 1/400 won't let you obtain as many sharp images as a higher shutter speed would.
Great re-do on that Artie! I was even thinking that maybe just a bit more blur on the BG (10 px gaussian) and some clone stamp touch-up on the dark spots would keep the eye from wandering off the bird here.
Last edited by Bob Blanchard; 10-22-2008 at 07:45 PM.
Thanks for all the comments and I feel really honored that the image was well recognized among the best bird photographers of the world. I really should get the stuff Artie recommended. As always once I return from vacation my regular job embraces me with plenty of work. The image I posted was developed on my laptop right away from the hotel and uploaded to our website. With your inspiring comments it is time to take a look at the original image and see what I can do.
GTNP: Immature Bald Eagle
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote