Bald Eagle with fresh fish

[Charles Scheffold]

Here's another bald eagle from last weekend... this time with a freshly caught lunch :)

Canon 1D Mark IV
500/4 + 1.4x TC
1/1600s @ f/8
ISO 800

Developed from RAW in Lightroom 3 (minimal sharpening and exposure adjustment)
Cropped to about 1/4 of the original frame.

[Andrew Merwin]

This is a great action shot. I like it a lot. The caught fish is a big plus here. It looks like one of the eagle's talons is in the fish's eye. I really like the wing position & the primaries. I wonder if it is possible to lighten the underside of the wings & the eagle's right leg as they appear dark on my monitor.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Excellent incoming angle, love the HA and the concentrated pose given by the eagle. Love the composition as well. Good job with focusing as the bird looks sharp. The fish is a very big plus. Might try to bring more details out in the darker area of the bird. TFS

[Troy Lim]

Nice action shot. The whites on the head is a bit hot, losing some details.
TFS.

[Charles Scheffold]

Thank you for the feedback - I toned down the highlights to improve head detail, and added some fill light in the darker areas. What do you think?

[Duane Noblick]

I like the repost...great work toning down the whites and showing some detail in the shadows.

[Randy Stout]

Charles:

Dynamic pose, great framing, fish, intense stare.

I appreciate Troy's comments on the whites, and he has a lot of experience with eagles, but for my personal taste, I was Ok with the original whites, as the repost has them looking a bit gray and muddy to my eye, and the changes with fill light, although helping with some darker areas, have also reduced the local contrast and made the image rather flat looking.

In the repost, I left the whites alone from the original post, did some minor dark and shadow adjustments with ACR, then in photoshop selectively painted back in some of the contrast lost with a soft brush. I avoided the darker areas, but tried not to lose some of the pop of the brighter areas. It is fairly subtle, but I think you have and outstanding image, and is worth some more tweaking on the original file.

Cheers

Randy

[Charles Scheffold]

Randy,

Thanks for the suggestions and effort on the repost. I can see the subtle differences, and looking back I do agree that my 1st repost has lost some "pop" compared to the original. I spent some time this morning on this one and I think I've found a compromise.

I backed off on the fill light, brought the exposure back up, and adjusted the curves. Also used an adjustment brush to subtly improve the details under the wings. I think my first repost had too much detail in the shadows, which as you mentioned did appear to have a flattening effect.

thanks
Charles

[Richard Peters]

Classic eagle shot that I would love to have in my portfolio! Great pose, great detail and a nice big fish to boot. Love it!

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the sharpness, wing position and fish. Beautiful image Charles!

[Stu Bowie]

What an intense stare, and I like the flying posture. Those large talons sure look embedded in his catch, and I like your repost, as well as Randy's.

[Troy Lim]

It is very tricky when since BE has such big contrast. I often struggle with the whites on the head as well.
I agree with Randy in this case after seeing both version.
Did you use linear burn? I often do that and use like 25% opacity on the brush and try to bring back some details without making it too dark/fake looking. It is something that you have to try and find a point where you will be happy with.

This is a keeper, the stare and the fish.