Oprey Takes Off

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 5d Mark II
EF 300mm f/4L IS + 1.4 TC
ISO 1000
1/8000sec
handheld; no flash
f/5.6

Cropped this a bit (about 1/3) and wondered about rotating it. Is it more important for the eyes to be level or the wing tips? I chose wingtips (the way I shot it), as they are such an arresting feature of the pic.

Did NR on it, saturated the blue, did slight levels and curves. Did Unsharp Mask. Not sure the color is right, was having trouble with it.

Thanks in advance for any critiques/comments. I began bird photography earlier this year after being steeped in macro, and am now fully obsessed.

[Desmond Chan]

Cropped this a bit (about 1/3) and wondered about rotating it. Is it more important for the eyes to be level or the wing tips?

Neither. Birds do not fly level all the time. I'm not aware of any regulations that tell them how to fly :)

I chose wingtips (the way I shot it), as they are such an arresting feature of the pic.

Your photo, your call. Fine with me on this one.

Not sure the color is right, was having trouble with it.

The color does look a bit on the greenish side to me. Let's hear what the experts say.

I'd like to see the original as I think this image could use some more room at lower part of the picture. You may also choose to apply some more sharpening to the bird (especially on the eyes) as it looks a tad soft on my monitor.

[Lance Peters]

Hi melissa - post the original with just a straight raw-jpg conversion.
:)

[Melissa Groo]

Here she is, Lance!

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks Desmond! Appreciate your comments. I have just posted the original as Lance asked, will be interested to see his comments.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Melissa - IMHO - nothing wrong with the composition or rotation - I would not be worried about trying to make the wing tips level -as you saw it should be fine.
Comparing the OP with the repost --- with the OP the colours look over-saturated and too contrasty.
I would try PP again - maybe starting by setting a black and white point in levels in Photoshop. (Create a levels adjustment layer - hold down ALT and use the sliders at either end - drag them in until you just start to see something appear)
Selectively sharpen the eye and then the rest of the bird - adjust the colour of the sky a little if you so desire.

When you get your image close in-camera there is not much you really need to do in PP - few minutes at the most unless you are removing things from the BG or otherwise manipulating the natural history of the image.
When starting it is very easy to go overboard with the PP.

Lots to like here though!!!! -- Looking forward to a repost!!

[Melissa Groo]

Ok, Lance. Did as you said. I really like that technique you told me about--setting the black and white points in Levels. Thank you.
Do you think it's improved?

[Melissa Groo]

Yikes. Looks a little noisy to me when I look at it here.

[Lance Peters]

Hi melissa - selected the bird - inverse the selection and run some noise reduction on the background only.

[Melissa Groo]

Ok, think I did it. Do you think it looks better?

[Mark Young]

Thanks in advance for any critiques/comments. I began bird photography earlier this year after being steeped in macro, and am now fully obsessed.

As far as obsessions go, there are a lot worse ones out there! ;)

Each repost is looking much nicer. Keep at it, you're learning quite fast.

[Melissa Groo]

Thank you Mark, that's greatly encouraging! :)