Hi John - the whites of the head are hot - sure you knew that though which is why you ask the question.
Would go back to the raw and see if the whites are recoverable - then you COULD - create two images from the RAW one with the whites in check and one with the wings how you want them and merge them together via a layer mask - Lots of ways to do it.
White birds are tough except in soft light - you have a choice expose for the whites and open the shadows up in PP (Introduces noise) or expose for the darks and risk blowing the whites - Third option is knowing your camera and light well enough to deliberately over expose the whites by just enough to give you what you want in the darks BUT still being able to recover the whites when you convert your RAW -this way would be the choice of many of the more advanced photographers on BPN -IMHO.
Like the BG - might have gone horizontal and would add a touch of sharpening to the bird.
Love the straight up wing position, the HA and the soaring pose. Lance gave good advices on how to expose on whites. You also need to watch for the light source and shadow. Most of the times (at least for me) the lack of details dark area comes from the shadow cast from another parts of the bird in harsh light, however I do not see that in your image, which is a good thing.
Need info on metering mode and pattern. When shooting birds, one must always protect the highlights first! Do you have a copy of Digital Basics. Artie Morris gives many examples of how he handles mid-tone backgrounds against mid-tone foregrounds with highlights and discusses histograms and exposure compensation.
Of course look at histogram and adjust is the key, hard to do when they are flying-by. But when shooting BIF there is a different mind-set some times, maybe manual mode (BG might be changing) and meter off the sky and add maybe +1.5. What I am saying is, BIF are challenging and you are on the right track,.. practice. You need to remember when photographing BIF the background can change and you must always protect the highlights on the subject - get a copy of digital basics and/or APBII and go from there.
Must have been a great moment seeing an Eagle - life is good!
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 11-20-2009 at 10:45 AM.
Hi John That is why we need to capture in softer light !!! Birds with whites are tough !!
Suggestion by Lance could work, just convert one image normal and the other a linear conversion (will look very dark) then combine the two !! I think it will work !!!
Image wise wish you would have taken it a bit sooner, fine looking bg a keeper in my book !!
Bald Eagle
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