Top of the morning

Harryb

Hi You'll,

JUst an eagle picture to start the day off (depending on time zone of course)

4labs

I don't think you could ever say "just an eagle picture" Thnxs for sharing Harry..

jwear

Harry
the only thing you do not get in your shots Harry is that bird lice really nice

ginger_55

Now you have me confused. I thought that was a dark egret again. It is a good thing you mentioned the type bird. With a straight face, I hope.

Uh, Harry. He is against the blue sky, do you raise the EC for that as is mentioned in Steve's post.

g (Don't know if I am shooting today. I was walking with Bill yesterday. He walks faster than I do. Andy, I could use one of those canes you gave to someone................I know a monopod. But I don't mean to use with a camera, just to get to the next room would be good.)

ginger_55

How do I know I haven't seen that photo before? I trust you, it is interesting, though, put an eagle on the same perch....................

Well, I would be excited, too.

ginger

ehughes

Harry, I hope you can appreciate how jealous I am of you getting that eagle over and over... :twitch

Great Shot

Ed

ian408

ginger_55 wrote:

Now you have me confused. I thought that was a dark egret again. It is a good thing you mentioned the type bird. With a straight face, I hope.

I am SO glad I have a copy of Sibley's bird book to look at when Harry
posts these pictures. Not the best to find something you've never seen
and don't know about but it gives you all the details most of the others
leave out. Like how to identify a juvy from an adult.

I bet they have it at the library too.

Ian

Harryb

4labs wrote:

I don't think you could ever say "just an eagle picture" Thnxs for sharing Harry..

Thanks and I see your point.

Harryb

jwear wrote:

the only thing you do not get in your shots Harry is that bird lice really nice

Hey Jeff,

Thanks and FYI my birds do not have bird lice. We only get the high quality birds down here.:D

Harryb

ginger_55 wrote:

Now you have me confused. I thought that was a dark egret again. It is a good thing you mentioned the type bird. With a straight face, I hope.

Uh, Harry. He is against the blue sky, do you raise the EC for that as is mentioned in Steve's post.

g (Don't know if I am shooting today. I was walking with Bill yesterday. He walks faster than I do. Andy, I could use one of those canes you gave to someone................I know a monopod. But I don't mean to use with a camera, just to get to the next room would be good.)

Hey Ginger,

Don't be confused its just another bird. Who cares what name we give it?

This shot was not so simple to shoot. The light is behind the bird illuminating its face and left wing. His body is dark and his face is white making it even tougher to expose for. I would have moved to the other side of the tree so the sun would have been behind me but that side was in the water and I didn't feel like messing with the gators and snakes.

I didn't want to blow out the face because without a face you have no shot. When you look at an eagle the first thing you look at is its face. I had been shooting this guy for awhile when I took this shot. I had the ev set to -0.7 (2/3rds of a stop). This just blow out the edges of the white around his face. The body except for the left wing was underexposed. In my post processing I brought out the shadow details and applied some noise reduction to reduce the noise created by bringing out the shadow detail.

Harryb

ginger_55 wrote:

How do I know I haven't seen that photo before? I trust you, it is interesting, though, put an eagle on the same perch....................

Well, I would be excited, too.

ginger

You have a point. Must eagle shots are of the eagle just perching in the tree looking noble and that stuff. There are only two adult eagles in the Wetlands so you probably have seen this eagle in my earlier shots. Since he always lands in the same tree you pretty much get the same shots. I need some new eagles or these guys will have to start doing some tricks. Its not easy because they just won't listen to me.

Steve Cavigliano

Harryb wrote:

You have a point. Must eagle shots are of the eagle just perching in the tree looking noble and that stuff. There are only two adult eagles in the Wetlands so you probably have seen this eagle in my earlier shots. Since he always lands in the same tree you pretty much get the same shots. I need some new eagles or these guys will have to start doing some tricks. Its not easy because they just won't listen to me.

Very nice Harry A beautiful eagle capture is a good way to start the day off

I don't know what to tell you about getting this guy off his perch. Maybe carrying a few riblets in your vest and tossing them. See if he'll play fetch.....lol That's what I do when Andy won't listen to me

Good question Ginger I'm glad you read what I wrote to you : Adding +EV comp for a dark subject against a light sky is correct. This shot is a bit trickier. As Harry points out, he was on the verge of blowing out the white at 0 EV's. So while adding positive EV comp would have brightened the body, it would have made the white areas even brighter. There's no perfect shooting solution for this type of shot. Harry did a good job of capturing the eagle without blowing out the whites and lightened the shadows during post. Basically, he extended the dynamic range of the shot during post processing. IOW, he was able to get more dynamic range than his camera is cabable of delivering. Knowing he could do this during post processing allowed him to get "the best capture possible" at the time he was shooting.

FWIW, it's usually easier to recover detail from shadows (albeit noisier) than from blown out highlights.


Sorry, this spun a bit OT Harry

Thanks for sharing,
Steve

Harryb

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Very nice Harry A beautiful eagle capture is a good way to start the day off
Good question Ginger I'm glad you read what I wrote to you : Adding +EV comp for a dark subject against a light sky is correct. This shot is a bit trickier. As Harry points out, he was on the verge of blowing out the white at 0 EV's. So while adding positive EV comp would have brightened the body, it would have made the white areas even brighter. There's no perfect shooting solution for this type of shot. Harry did a good job of capturing the eagle without blowing out the whites and lightened the shadows during post. Basically, he extended the dynamic range of the shot during post processing. IOW, he was able to get more dynamic range than his camera is cabable of delivering. Knowing he could do this during post processing allowed him to get "the best capture possible" at the time he was shooting.

FWIW, it's usually easier to recover detail from shadows (albeit noisier) than from blown out highlights.


Sorry, this spun a bit OT Harry

Thanks for sharing,
Steve

Hey Steve,

Thanks for the kind words and your reply was definitely not OT. I really think doing some tech talk on how we took a shot and why we did what we did is helpful and I love this kind of talk.:D

Harryb

ehughes wrote:

Harry, I hope you can appreciate how jealous I am of you getting that eagle over and over... :twitch

Great Shot

Ed

Thanks Ed. It is handy having a neighborhood eagle to shoot.

Harryb

ian408 wrote:

I am SO glad I have a copy of Sibley's bird book to look at when Harry
posts these pictures. Not the best to find something you've never seen
and don't know about but it gives you all the details most of the others
leave out. Like how to identify a juvy from an adult.

I bet they have it at the library too.

Ian

I agree Ian, Sibley's is the best I've seen for bird IDs. I also use the Smithsonian's "Birds of Florida" by Fred Alsop for obvious reasons.