Bald Eagle 2

[Bill Dix]

Another from Conowingo last week. Had been shooting birds against the sky in Ap, so I overexposed a little when this guy suddenly swooped down over the water. Did my best to recover, but probably should have been in Manual. Almost full frame. (Added slivver of canvas top and left, took a little off the right for comp.) C&C appreciated.

D7000, 500f4 + 1.4, ISO 1000, 1/800s @ f/7.1, +1.7 EV, gitzo and mongoose

[Jeff Sorbie]

Beautiful wing detail Bill. Looks nice to my eyes. Really sharp.

[Sachin Saraf]

Beautiful capture Bill...Nice and Sharp. I would like to see alternate composition...as I personally feel that Eagle can be placed slightly higher in the frame

[Ofer Levy]

Nice pose and sharp.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Bill, I liked this a lot...pose is very dramatic...incoming angle is excellent. exposure, as you say, might have ben slightly off but you've salvaged it quite well. terrific underwing details. I like the composition as presented.

[Don Nelson]

Love those feather details in the wings. Nice save.

[gail bisson]

Excellent exposure on the wings. This guy has crazy looking eyes! I like the fan tail and the whites look good. I like the comp but would like to see this shot with more room on the bottom,
Gail

[Melissa Groo]

Love that L pose they have. Awesome wing detail, Bill. Really like this.

[dankearl]

Very nice Bill, as mentioned, nice detail and pose.
Well done on all aspects.

[Dave Leroy]

Great looking shot Bill. Nicely done in the field to get such good framing with that big long wingspan. Those really clean whites can be hard when the birds are swooping around and changing angles like that.

[Stu Bowie]

Bill, great head on capture, and I feel you have done fine with the overall exposure. A difficult flight pose to create the best comp, but I would leave this as is.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice posew and I like the fact thats it coming towards you and just angling slightly away. The detail under the wings are great and the sharpness looks good...Good one Bill!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Gorgeous shot great pose very sharp. I wonder if you go back to the raw file if you could lower the brightest parts around the face eye and bill? I suspect Recovery alone would not quite do it but maybe in combination with exposure and or brightness??

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for the kind comments.

Jonathan - By the time a heavy morning fog cleared and the eagles started flying, the sun was getting harsh. When I exposed too far to the right I totally fried the details on the side of the head, to the point where no amount of recovery, exposure or brightness in ACR would bring them back. In the end, I resorted to cloning in some detail from other parts of the head with a small brush. I think it came out fairly well for web presentation (if one doesn't look too closely), but will not hold up to gallery-sized printing even though it's almost FF. In fact, I wonder if I had exposed correctly for the head I might not have gotten the wing detail as well as I did. Have to go back and hope for better light and another cooperative bird.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Ok Bil,l I understand, never mind it is still a fine image. I just love it when you say have to go back and hope for better light - I wish I had the opportunity - good luck.

[Dan Behm]

Bill,
Nice job with this one, love the position, different and not the norm, the underwing detail is outstanding, all around a fine image!

Dan

[arash_hazeghi]

nice dynamic pose and a BG. The head and eye look a bit funny to me, as if it was overexposed and you had to recover in post? TFS

[Bill Dix]

nice dynamic pose and a BG. The head and eye look a bit funny to me, as if it was overexposed and you had to recover in post? TFS

Thanks Arash. Very perceptive (assuming you hadn't read Pane #14)

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks Arash. Very perceptive (assuming you hadn't read Pane #14)

sorry I did not read the previous comments!