Bald Eagle

[John Goldman]

Canon Rebel, 1/320, f6.3, ISO800, 400mm.
Cloned out a branch that ran behind his head. Wish I were better at that. Left the haze. Other branch distractions were also cloned out. Crop, NR, and sharpening.

[Bob Decker]

Wow. A beutiful and majestic bird! The details in the feathers is really nice. I'm jealous. There's one that lives not far from here but so far I've only managed fleeting glimpses.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the back pose, the head tern, the nice sharp round eye and the feather pattern. The unique background looks good too. A bit of white is lost on the head (very tiny bit) and some on the snow, you maybe able to recover those in RAW. Since no shadow is lost and a white a bit overexpose, I might go for just a little lower ISO setting or a little faster shutter speed.

[Katie Rupp]

This is so nice, I love the bg feel and texture, the great detail in the back feathers, the look-back and the snow on the branch. Big Congrats!

[Dan Brown]

Very beautiful John! The BG is so unique! As for your attempt to remove the branch, this image is worth revisiting in PS. You could create a BG copy, select the birds head and shoulders with the quick selection tool (in CS3), then produce a new layer using the "layer via copy" option under "layer" at the top of PS (assuming you have PS CS). Then return to the BG copy and clone away and because the birds head copy now resides on top of the BG copy, you can really get a clean clone around the head. I like to set my clone tool to 0 hardness and about 50% opacity, this allows a little more control. Good luck!

[kostas nianiopoulos]

great image . classic nice pose sharp and good color

[Gus Cobos]

Hi John,
This is a spectacular capture of such a majestic bird. I like the rear pose, you have good details and the unique background make him stand out. Would recommend adjusting the black point and bumping up the saturation and contrast just a tad...I like this very much...well done...:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Hi John

Great advice from Dan, will work great !!! .... do keep in mind using the soft setting on the brush !!

Love the head turn and PS work not bad a all, always remember to blow up large to see what your doing .. only something funny going on around the beak area !! Like it a lot !!!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Might be better off using the clone brush and QM to adjust minor tweaks that are hardly noticeable than to to start from scratch - you are very close as is. Dan's advise is good.

I will be in Reel Foot State Park next week looking for Eagles, they are heading south to nest from Canada. Only hope to return with something as good as John's picture - well done.