Bald Eagle

[Jim Caldwell]

American Bald eagle
Canon 40D f/10 @ 1/400 sec. ISO - 400
Canon 100-400 L at 400mm
Aperture priority -2/3 - 580 flash on manual at 1/4 to act as a fill and eyelight
Cropped in Photoshop with some minor adjustments and sharpening

[AJ Kunkel]

The eye draws my attention right in and it looks very menacing, but the bright light on the back of the neck is a bit distracting to me... any way to darken it up a bit? I like the image and I am hoping to get a chance to to see some of these on my trip to Fla. later this month.

[Jim Caldwell]

The eye draws my attention right in and it looks very menacing, but the bright light on the back of the neck is a bit distracting to me... any way to darken it up a bit? I like the image and I am hoping to get a chance to to see some of these on my trip to Fla. later this month.

I was bothered a bit by the white there as well - I used the technique described by Art Morris using linear burn to improve it, but there just isn't hardly any detail to bring out and darkening would just reduce the white to gray. That's part of the curse of white feathers!

Thanks for the comment - depending upon where you will be here in Florida - you may have an excellent chance to photograph an eagle! This guy was photographed at Homosassa Park - thanks to Sid Garige for putting the trip together.

[Sid Garige]

Agree on whites with you Jim. Fantastic composition.

[phillane]

Jim



Love the symetery and the overall lines of the image, flash is up to snuff as well. Something about the contrast deters a little for whats going on in the image for me. Captive or Wild?

[Dean Ingwersen]

Top use of flash and great subject. I agree about the whites but understand the dilemma you've mentioned. I also wonder if adding a bit of canvas in the direction the bird is looking might be worthwhile too?

[Jim Caldwell]

Thanks for all the comments! This is a captive bird at Homosassa Springs.