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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Photographed by

Siham on Sun 27th Mar, 2016 and uploaded on Thu 15th Jun, 2017 .

Resolution

1400x933

Viewed

402

26242

Comment

I took 2 pictures of this eagle in the middle of the afternoon in Tasmania, one is too bright and the second one is too dark.
I had to process (Photoshop) both pictures to have an acceptable result, this one was too dark and I had too much blue. The picture was not cropped, white balance reduced, exposure, highlights and shadows raised.

Equipment

Canon EOS 600D
Lens 150-500mm Sigma
Exposure: 1/100 sec; f/7.1; ISO 100

Location

Tasmania Fortescue bay, Tasmania

Keywords

adult

This image is not available for download.

Ian Wilson	2017-06-16 15:17:48	Hi Siham, My overall impression of this image is that it has a number of shortcomings, none of which alone are fatal, but in combination make this image a record shot at best. I am unsure if you captured the shot as a RAW file but if not, I recommend you record RAW files in future and as far as I can see, for Canon shooters, the DPP4 software for RAW adjustment and conversion followed by finishing in PS provides the most effective workflow. There is a lot going on in this image with so many picture elements that I am almost overwhelmed by the distractions. This leads me to suggest that in future you work harder to better frame the image with particular attention to the background which in this case would work better if it was blue sky. I understand that was probably not possible in this example but as a general rule, one should move around to try to find a reasonably clean background such as blue sky, out of focus vegetation, or distant terrain. There can be exceptions to this general rule when you want to overtly place the bird in a particular environment. The heavy-duty perch is OK for such a large bird but remember that for small birds one ideally needs to scale down the impact of the perch in proportion to the size of the bird. The massive out of focus tree/branch on the left side of the image makes the composition very unbalanced and in an ideal world one would avoid this by moving to another shooting position but in this case I expect you were using this to provide some cover as you tried not to alarm the bird by stepping out into the open. The offending tree/branch also obscures part of the subject, especially the long tail, and this is very undesirable. The small twig in front of the bird's shoulder is not nice but could be removed in post-processing without too much trouble. Finally, your shooting position is too far under the bird. In an ideal situation one would like a point of view more level with the bird, not easy to achieve with this species. At the Geelong conference Steve Tredinnick gave us an appreciation of the difficulties that must be overcome to successfully photograph perched Wedge-tailed Eagles, including being attacked by the birds, good climbing skills and a head for heights. Cheers, Ian
Siham	2017-06-16 16:35:36	Thank you Ian for your feedback I'll try to remember all of your advice next time I'll go out! I always shoot as RAW and was using only PS for both post processing and conversion. I'll give DPP4 a try too!
Siham	2017-06-16 17:08:23	--I usually spend so much effort trying to get a sharp picture of the bird that I forget about the background and image composition. That's definitely something I need to work on.
Glenn Pure	2017-06-17 10:05:21	Hi Siham. I agree with virtually everything Ian Wilson has said. I note you have achieved a nice sharp image of the bird which is a good starting point. However, you may want to rethink your camera settings in the future as I note you took this shot at 1/100 sec and ISO 100. It is possible to get a reasonable proportion of shots sharp at a low shutter speed like this provided you have a steady hand and the image stabiliser in your lens is on. However, you'll get a much higher chance of sharp shots at higher shutter speeds. In your case, you could safely increase the ISO to 400 or 800 to give a much faster shutter with still acceptable levels of noise in the image. Ian has suggested you could clone out the blurred twig over the bird's back. This is the only issue where I have a different personal view to Ian. While I'm happy to clone things out of backgrounds and foregrounds, when they involve cloning over the bird, I will almost never do it unless the incursion over the bird is really small or trivial so there is essentially no risk that cloning will affect the bird's appearance. My view is that the appearance of the bird's features and plumage should always be left unchanged. If there is a significant obstruction covering part of the bird, I'll rethink whether I even want to post it rather than trying to clone the obstruction out. However, I stress that is a personal view of mine. There are no right or wrong answers here and it's something you'll probably want to think about as your photography develops.

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	6/283 in Critique Gallery
	2/5 by Siham
	38/144 of Wedge-tailed Eagle
	391/1246 of Eagles, Kites, Goshawks
	10439/34408 Overall
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