Eagle as Shot
Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
The eagle was at the Sacramento NWR in late January. The light that morning was not great as you can see looking straight up into a dingy sky through a bunch of branches. The sunset on the other hand was beautiful. Unfortunately, I only had my Samsung smart phone to capture it. I decided to try blending the eagle by cutting it out, copying it by layer, and then superimposing it over a portion of the sunset.
Specific Feedback
Should I try to brighten the eagle a bit more to make it pop against the BG? I did some shadow reduction and increased the contrast, and the beak started to go orange on me, so I had to back it off some.
Technical Details
Eagle - Canon 7D MII, iso 1600, f13, 1/400 sec, +0.7 exp bias, 308 mm (100-400/1.4 TC)
Wow! The thumbnail jumped out at me, and the larger version holds up to the promise. This was an excellent cutout – you must have a secret weapon. I love the light on the eagle – I think you got it just right and the BG is very nicely subdued.
The visual weight feels a but heavy toward the bottom, with that long branch pulling the eye up to the corner. I think you could crop a bit off the top, maybe halfway into the blue, or prune the branch, or both.
Although I don’t find fault with the cutout, I wonder if it could be a bit more subtle, or nuanced. Did you try blending modes? Assuming the branches/bird are the top layer, maybe have a look at some of the darkening modes. Then I would drop another copy of the cutout on top of that, in normal mode, and do an Alt-mask (all black) and paint back in any small areas where the blend didn’t work well – those areas where the branches are lighter, and the bird’s head.
Just an idle thought. Your description of looking up at a dingy sky through a bunch of branches pretty well describes most of my bird photography opportunities.
I like this comp and your tweak to the sky helps the comp immensely. I like the arrangement of the sticks–adds some essential fill and provides depth to the photo…Jim
@Diane_Miller and @Jim_Zablotny thank you so much for your comments. I tried the recrop and cloned out some of the top branch. Please see above. I’ll have to figure out how to do the masking/blending better.
Yes!! The bird is now so much more powerful in the frame, and the very nice image quality here holds up to that.
1 Like
