Tips for shooting bald eagles

Maestro

I will be here for the weekend in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. Saturday is the offical Texas Eagle Count Day. http://www.vtrc.com/eagle.html

Any tips on capturing these majestic raptors, would be greatly appreciated.

Harryb

Maestro wrote:

I will be here for the weekend in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. Saturday is the offical Texas Eagle Count Day. http://www.vtrc.com/eagle.html

Any tips on capturing these majestic raptors, would be greatly appreciated.

Except for the exposure eagles are like any other subject. Bald ragles have a white head and a darker body so the exposure can be tricky. If possible you want to get them in the morning or late afternoon light when the lighting is not too harsh. I prefer to have them front lit in that light.

I prefer to expose for the white head. I shoot in aperture priority with EV adjustments. Ideally if you have good (not harsh) light you want to have no
exposure adjustment. After your first shot check you histogram and highlights. You wnat the histogram to the right w/o any blow outs. This will give you the details in the head and the body. I usually can get feather detail in the darker body are up to a -0.7 (2/3rds of a stop adjustment). If you have to adjust up to a full stop or more then you will start to lose the feather detail in the body area.

You also want to keep your shutter speed up in case an opportunity for a flight shot comes up. Try to keep your shutter speed at 1/800 sec or more. I would do this by upping the ISO. Check the direction of the wind. When an eagle flies off a perch they will normally fly with the wind. You would want to consider the lighting the eagles will be flying into so you can make a quick eposure adjustment for the change in lighting.

Good luck.