American Bald Eagle

[bill jarvis]

Took this one in Alaska a few weeks ago.
Had to bump the ISO up to 800 to allow a decent shutter speed, as it was a dull day, I was also on a boat that was rolling around considerably.
Consequently, the image has suffered a bit from noise but I still quite like it.

Nikon D2Xs, Nikkor 18-200VR at 200mm(300mm), 1/500, f5.6, aperture priority.

bill

[Photo-Vinc]

Re: American Bald Eagle

Hi,

I do like the composition and the position of the head of this eagle. It makes the photograph very attractive. The noise is a problem, I think it has become worse because of the original was cropped.

Ideas to improve:

- use some noise reduction software (e.g. Noise Ninja or Akvis)
- increase contrast
- do some local contrast enhancements with USM
- Consider to convert to B&W (there noise is less an issue)

Vinc

[Ian]

Re: American Bald Eagle

Took this one in Alaska a few weeks ago.
Had to bump the ISO up to 800 to allow a decent shutter speed, as it was a dull day, I was also on a boat that was rolling around considerably.
Consequently, the image has suffered a bit from noise but I still quite like it.

Nikon D2Xs, Nikkor 18-200VR at 200mm(300mm), 1/500, f5.6, aperture priority.

bill

Hi Bill - good to see you here. Did you know that Stephen was in Alaska a few weeks back? You didn't go on a cruise by any chance?

Great angle on the eagle - beautiful form, but it looks like a severe crop - was the eagle some distance away?

Ian



ian

[StuartR]

Re: American Bald Eagle

A little USM, levels, contrast boost in CS2 followed by NeatImage to try and kill the noise a little (I used the default "auto profile" settings - a bit more time tweaking may have reduced the noise a bit more).

What do you think Bill, a slight improvement perhaps?

[bill jarvis]

Re: American Bald Eagle

A little USM, levels, contrast boost in CS2 followed by NeatImage to try and kill the noise a little (I used the default "auto profile" settings - a bit more time tweaking may have reduced the noise a bit more).

What do you think Bill, a slight improvement perhaps?

No, I don't think it's a slight improvement.
I think it's a vast improvement.
I'm not much of a one for post processing but with that result perhaps I should be.

bill

[bill jarvis]

Re: American Bald Eagle

Hi Bill - good to see you here. Did you know that Stephen was in Alaska a few weeks back? You didn't go on a cruise by any chance?

Great angle on the eagle - beautiful form, but it looks like a severe crop - was the eagle some distance away?

Ian



ian

Yes, I was on a cruise from Vancouver on the Norwegian Sun.
The bird was probably around 50 yards away and it's about a 30% crop of the original.

bill

[StuartR]

Re: American Bald Eagle

No, I don't think it's a slight improvement.
I think it's a vast improvement.
I'm not much of a one for post processing but with that result perhaps I should be.

bill

Bill, half the fun in this hobby is in the tweaking! - bit like it was in the darkroom days. I think I got more pleasure out of developing & printing than I did taking the pictures - long time ago mind, so my memory might be failing

[bill jarvis]

Re: American Bald Eagle

Bill, half the fun in this hobby is in the tweaking! - bit like it was in the darkroom days. I think I got more pleasure out of developing & printing than I did taking the pictures - long time ago mind, so my memory might be failing

I only did black and white D&P, I enjoyed it very much at the time but I'd hate to go back to it now, I've had digital cameras for over 11 years, starting with a Kodak DC1.
I've always been against (too much) post processing but your corrections to my image have made me think again. You've improved it, whilst retaining the best of the image as it was taken.

bill

[vlarcombe]

Re: American Bald Eagle

Hi Bill,

I was going to suggest exactly the process Stuart demonstrated.

I think if you're not post-processing you are probably missing out on getting the best from your pictures. I know there are some that would disagree but I treat the raw data much as a negative in that it has to be processed in order to get to the final image. Others revel in the challenge of getting everything right "in camera" much as you had to do when shooting slides. I was always a print man so perhaps that explains my thinking (and I'm certainly not saying that one has more merit than the other).

Back to your picture, a great capture of the eagle and well worth some time to get the best out of it. I'd be very pleased if I'd managed that shot.

Vernon