Shot a few years ago with a Canon Rebel Xti and a standard, came with the camera 75-300mm lens. f/5.6, 1/500, ISO 250 at 280 meters. Again from my kayak without a tripod.
I sat and watched this eagle (2005) for about 2 hours in a small bay. Sadly, this is the best I could do. Wish I'd have had a better camera and lens then, but I can still learn from this image if you are willing to give feedback. I still need to work on flatness, but that will come, right? ;-)
I appreciate ALL the feedback I have received. I have learned a lot in my first week here at BPN.
The sun angle made it tough here. The light was coming from well to your left, which left the face in deep shadow. The head is also turned away from us, and it is generally most desirable to have the head parallel in a look back pose like this, more engaging.
The whites on the back of the head are overexposed, which is very easy to do in a shot like this with lots of dark masses. The camera will expose for this and blow out the whites. Best to take a shot, check the histogram and look for any blinkies, and adjust as needed.
Shooting angle is a bit steep, hard to avoid sometimes with eagles.
The bright bit of sky to the right tends to draw the eye, and you might consider toning it down.
I noticed that you only posted the image at 65 KB. Your images will display better if you download the biggest file you can , 200kB.
Hi Sandra - I would echo Randy's comments - Artie also has a Digital Basics PDF available form birdsasart.com that goes into how to PP - Could be another worthwhile investment.
If you are using Photoshop I can send you a action to resize your images for BPN - if you want it just send me a PM with your email address.
Keep em coming :)
Hi Sandra, everything pretty well covered above. It comes down to lighting,subjects position,angle,exposure and backround as the key elements in this type of image....
Eagle sunning
