Everything wrong with this image but for some reason I couldn't pass it up. Side lit, underexposed (did my best in PP to recover some detail in the darks), lack of eye contact even though she was more concerned with getting control of the branch rather then me snapping a pic. I left the Pine tree in to add some depth to the image.
Your thoughts on this image without stating the obvious is much appreciated.
OK, I won't DIRECTLY mention the obvious...but I will say I obviously agree with your self-critique (re: flaws). BTW the obvious needs to be mentioned when critiquing, although you did a good job yourself with that :-) That is quite a snag the eagle is trying to manipulate, and I like the is still a pine cone stuck to it near the top. A bit more room so that snag isn't so close to the bottom would be nice to have. The OOF pine is so-so, it would work better if it was so high in the frame - perhaps about half of its current height. The image wouldn't suffer without it however. Must have been fun to watch!!
Love the action captured in this image. If it had been possible to move a little more to the left the lighting would have been more favorable and shown us more feather detail. Love the timing and agree with Daniel about the pine. Many thanks for sharing Duane.
Behavior shots are almost always more difficult (The Perch above) and most usually more interesting. Yours is very cool and I think so cool I would dump the tree and crop in the right and add canvas to the left for a better comp. It's pretty AND interesting. Nice shot, considering all.
I usually like to see some background, but I would agree that the tree doesn't contribute given it being almost total OOF. I like the branch with the cone.
I would erase the tree and crop about 1/2 the right side and about 1/2 the top. Other issues you mentioned. I know it is nice to move the camera, but everytime I have tried it, the bird was someplace else by the time I got it in view again...
Nice shot, excluding the obvious, minor work could make it better. A keeper in my view, but maybe not a cover shot.
Moving would have been out of the question. I would have had woods as a BG, no time to react (I lost track of her in the woods) and there is a boat canal that separates me from this area and it curves away from the light. Remembering her coming out of the woods, gliding through the air towards me trying to get a handle on the branch with two Crows in tow is good enough for me...getting a few captures was the bonus.
With the above appreciated suggestions this is my edit for what it's worth.
Now, if we could have only gotten those two crows - just kidding, just kidding. Nice job on a difficult image Duane. I really like it. Maybe it's my monitor but I see allot of sploches in the BG. If I am correct eye-dropping the sky color after Q/S or M/W isolation and using "fill" would end that problem.
Last edited by Bill McCrystyn; 04-15-2009 at 07:42 PM.
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