What technical feedback would you like if any?
I am wondering if I should worry about the fore wing not being in focus
What artistic feedback would you like if any? Any
Any pertinent technical details: Spent 4 days standing on a cliff waiting for an Eagle I new would fly by eventually. This was my best shot. The sky was always gray and boring. I have tried to fix it but not sure what more I can do without cropping the eagle out altogether and adding it to another sky.
This has already been cropped but I am wondering if I should crop further to center the eagle more?
Welcome to NPN, Lisa. I’d say this guy got quite a load of material for one haul. Exposure on the darks and whites look really good. Focus looks pretty good from here. You might want to include more techs, i.e. shutter speed, f-stop and ISO. Since you cropped this, I would prefer seeing more of the surroundings, particularly in front for the bird to fly into. Look forward to more.
Welcome!
This is a very nice shot, so your hard work paid off.
The slightly out-of-focus front wing is not a big deal - I suspect you needed a higher ISO.
Most images are best NOT centered, so - if anything - I’d allow a good bit more room in front, rather than cropping further.
The sky is also fine - the eagle and it’s interesting load of nest-lining is the main focus.
Sandy
Welcome to NPN, Lisa. Nice to have yet another Northwesterner in the Avian forum. I agree with Sandy that you certainly don’t want to crop anything off the left, if anything you’d want to have more room for the bird to fly into, though this is adequate given the load it’s carrying, which adds a lot of interest to the image. The slight softness of the wings is something you pretty much have to put up with unless you have really bright light so you can stop down (and that causes other issues with Bald Eagles). In your full size image, there’s a bit of noise in the eagle, but not objectionably so.
The sky is fine, the second layer adds a touch of interest, but as Sandy noted, this is all about the eagle.
Also, as noted, including shooting parameters and processing software helps a lot in suggesting ways of improving. The more information you can provide, the better the feedback.
This is a very fine first post and I look forward to seeing a lot more of your work.
It is a very nice first post.
I really like how the wing serves as a background for the head and neck. Straight lines within images that parallel the border of the image can be a unattractive. It may have looked better if the bird was in front of that water/sky line (lowering camera slightly), interrupting the line so it does not draw attention.
I like this a lot. Bird looks good and sharp. For me, the sharpness only really matters on the eye, so I have no issue whatsoever with the wing being a little soft. I also like the background. The conditions were obviously kind of dreary, which is not uncommon for environs where eagles live; the image should reflect the natural conditions in which it was captured. My only critique is that it looks like there is a little bit of a yellow color cast to the image. I’d work on the color balance a bit and see if you could correct that.
