Juvenile Bonelli's Eagle

[Gerald Kelberg]

This juvenile Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila fasciata) is the same individual featured in a recent posting. This was in central Spain in January this year; the bird was baited and was among a Marsh Harriers, Red Kites and Buzzards that attended for the early morning session. A very opportunity rich environment. The background is dry grasslands.

The image was made with my Sony A9II and FE200-600 plus a 1.4 Teleconverter at 791mm. Shutter speed 1/1600 sec at f/9.0, ISO 1250. (Max aperture with the teleconverter if f/9.0)

In Lightroom working with Adobe Standard profile, light touch of NR with Enhance tool, adjusted background and subject colour to my recollection (Rich early morning light!).

In PS, cleaned up the beak to remove unsightly food scraps; resized and sharpened for output. Consciously trying to keep things simple!

Comments and suggestions always very welcome.

Gerald

[William Dickson]

All looks good here Gerald. I like the crop you chose and the facial expression takes centre stage. Very nice detail on the bird and the BG colours 'fit' perfectly. The whites on the tip of the near wing draws my attention a wee bit.

Will

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nice shot I would suggest some subtle sharpening/microcontrast to offer a little more sharpness/detail

[Daniel Cadieux]

I suppose a bit more sharpening for the fine details would not hurt, but not bad as is. The light is sublime!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Handsome raptor and beautiful light. Sharpness looks good to me as is.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gerald, a nice capture of an awesome subject. As you know, ironically I had been watching a few YT of this location just as you returned and both light and subject are sublime!

Techs look OK, nice DoF and a reasonable SS., albeit you could have easily pushed to 1/2500 just to freeze the subject as they can be slight 'twitchy' at times. Perhaps a sliver off the RHS and a tad more to the left and a bit more above, but that's personal taste.

Overall I just feel it all looks a bit flat, not doing justice to both yourself Gerald and the subject, as everything is bathed in this ochre light with no real separation between subject and BKG, plus a lot of the form and detail is hidden. I'm not saying these are the adjustments, but you need more tonal contrast within the subject, creating shape and form, utilising the natural light as it falls on the subject coming from over your right shoulder I guess? If you half squint it just looks very mid tone overall.

Again it has a lot more potential Gerald you originally capture.

TFS
Steve

[Arthur Morris]

Excellent crop of what can be an awkward framing. Though I understand that the light was sweet and I do not know this bird, the images looks a bit too warm for me.

with love, artie