African Fish Eagle in lovely light

[gail bisson]

Canon 7D
F 2.8 70-200
ISO 640
SS 1/2000
f 6.3
Manual
Took 5% off the right and added 10% to the right for composition.Otherwise full frame
LR3 and NR and S & H and sharpening in CS5
Comments and critiques always learned from and appreciated,
Gail

[Sachin Saraf]

Gail this is a fantastic capture...the whites/yellow on head look hot on my monitor...and may be you can add touch more space at bottom..

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gail, the combination of 70-200 with the 1.4x works well as a unit offering excellent flexibility, as shown above. Thought by adjusting the yellow it brought out the rich blue of the water creating a richer BKG, WDYT? Whites don't look to bad, but perhaps you could get a bit more out of them.

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot Gail, if it were mine I would have another look at the raw file, try to tame the whites a little more especially around the area to the right of the eye. Then I would zoom in and have a good look at the eye and try to brighten it up a little bit. I think then, it would be a peach of a shot.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, Ive seen all your Fish Eagle posts from your trip, and feel this is your best to date. You certainly captured a great banking angle, and probably had a few frames either side of this to have chosen the best one. This could lead to an interesting debate, keep the colours as captured from the early or late light ( as in your OP ) or adjust slightly as Steve has done to bring out the right colours of the Fish Eagle. Maybe a slight CCW rotation needed.

[Brendan Dozier]

Beautiful eagle and like the angle of the swooping pose you captured, Gail. I think taking out some yellow in color balance was a good call for this image. As Steve mentions it gives a bit richer blue color to BG which helps compliment the orange brown feathers of eagle. Nice work!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Gail, awesome shot. loved the DOF coverage and the details. I can go either way with the colors...or even something in between. Good suggestion to go back to raw file and look at the whites...the red channel probably is too close to the edge to blown a bit. I also find warm light on white birds very tough to handle.

[Doug Brown]

Great suggestions above Gail. I prefer the bluer water in the repost, and I suspect that you can find a bit more detail in the whites. Good look at the fanned tail feather and the underside of the wing. A bit more eye contact would have been nice.

[Karl Egressy]

I like the original, (great pose and composition) but I love the repost.
Great work of both of you Gail and Steve.

[gail bisson]

Hi Steve,
I like your repost but am torn as to what to do because the 7:00am light really did turn everything this color. I think I will decrease the yellows to something in between my OP and Steve's repost. I will work on the whites as well. Thanks to all your helpful comments ,
Gail

[gail bisson]

Here is my repost. better? I added +6 to the blue and lighten the eye and did a linear burn on the whites at 50%,
Gail

[Dave Leroy]

It is a great looking pose and I really like the nice dof. Very well done. Of the three I prefer the third.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Re-post looks better. Still a bit hot , but I wish it were mine none the less.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the banking pose, DOF and fanned tail. Your repost is a real improvement. Well done Gail!

[Melissa Groo]

This is my favorite of your fish eagle images so far. Really great pose, wonderful light and excellent job on repost.

[Ofer Levy]

SHarp with good detail. Whites don't look hot to me. I think Steve repost is a bit too cold but not much. Wish for a better head angle.

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent this is a great shot, a better HA and direct eye contact would take this over the top. well done

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice pose whites look much better in the repost and I like the colors in Steve's repost!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Yes - like the repost Gail!

[Bill Dix]

Superb flight shot - great banking pose to be captured almost FF. Your repost nails it. Congrats!