Hanging Out with a friend

[Todd Levine]

Taken in Homer Alaska, snow falling lightly. All comments welcome.

thanks,

Todd
Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Date/Time: 2009:02:28 15:33:14
Shutter speed: 1/1250 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 1600
Lens: EF800mm f/5.6L IS USM
Focal length: 800mm

[Ian Cassell]

I like this one very much. IMO, a bit off the top would help it - just below that lighter band of sky.

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Ian, I like the snow flakes and the head angles of both eagles. I bit more DOF would have help on the right eagles. I would prefer a bit more room on the right side. I will be there in two weeks. Looking forward to that!

[Tim Munsey]

They look full of character, great shot.

Tim

[Art Kornienko]

Not sure how heavy a crop this is but seems to be lacking a bit of detail and a touch dark on my monitor.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the winter setting. Nice to have both eagles pose for you on this perch. Stopping down would have been great for the right eagle...for web posting you could selectively sharpen it. I agree on more a bit room at right (if you have it), and I would crop at bottom to hide the thin layer of snow below the perch. This would also anchor said perch more solidly along the bottom edge.

Would it have been possible to get down lower to hide the BG snow line behind the perch?

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice! love the snow and environment, but the right one is OOF. I don't think stopping down would bring the 2nd one into critical focus given the size of the eagle and the space between them, in a situation like this the only way to get them both razor sharp is to make a composite focusing on one at a time. I would not sharpen an OOF bird, it will only result in noise.

Great image any way, enjoyed looking.

[Daniel Cadieux]

While I agree the result would likely be less than stellar on print or large size version (I know from experience what happens), this fella should sharpen nicely for small size web posting.

[arash_hazeghi]

While I agree the result would likely be less than stellar on print or large size version (I know from experience what happens), this fella should sharpen nicely for small size web posting.

Dan, can you sharpen it for demonstration? when the detail is not there sharpening does not help IMO.

[Herb Houghton]

Nice shot Todd. I like the bird on the right's interest and the profile on the left eagle. I agree with the above stopped down comments. I rarely shoot my 800 wide open at such a fast shutter for a perch scene.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm maybe fighting a losing battle selectively sharpening a very low resolution jpeg as the afformentioned noise quickly creeps up, but here goes:

[Steven Kersting]

I agree with the other comments about aperture....it wouldn't have taken much. But, I see a bit of high iso noise in the BG so going up on the iso to get the aperture would be the wrong choice. (looks like Dan took a lot of it out in his repost)

I'd assume you were using a tripod and they aren't active so I think you could have gone much slower on SS, probably well below focal length, in order to get both lower iso and dof.

But something else is bothering me. I don't really feel any connection to the image and I don't really know why..... Even if it were technically perfect I don't think it would really work for me. Maybe it's because they are both so "still", feels a bit like a "zoo shot".

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks Dan for posting, to my eyes the right eagle is still noticeably lacking in detail/sharpness compared to the left one, it just looks grainier than in the original image. IME it is best to get the image sharp in camera than try to sharpen in post. A soft photo has no cure, because the information is not there to begin with. If this were mine I'd just get rid of the one on the right and just make it a single portrait :)

thanks for input