More from the Eagle Nest

[Eric Diller]

Well it is going to quite interesting soon when these 2 Eagles start bringing the fish and Ducks back to the nest. We figure the little ones should hatch any day now. I keep looking for the egg shells below the tree (they will toss them out when hatched).
I can't wait for the inflights with food hanging from those powerful talons!!!

Shot these at Mid day on a way to a meeting.....

 

[Charlotte Thompson]

These are unbelieveable! what a wonderful quest you have-
I so love birds
hey I have a parakeet* LOL
beautiful work
especially love the feathers I feel like I could touch them

Charlotte-

 

[Don Cohen]

These are simply fantastic, Eric, with the first 2 being shots to die for!

And I know I'm sounding like a broken record (a metaphor quickly becoming quite anachronistic!!), but I think if you learn to manage the highlights and shadows of these images more effectively, these could be contest winning pictures!

Excellent work!

 

[Eric Diller]

Thanks Don...could you give me an example of what you might do? I always think I have the highlights and shadows right until you poin them out. Irespect your opinion and would like to see how you would do it. I shoot these in raw and obviously converted to jpeg to post, so if you want to play with raw file let me know how to get them to you.

Thanks again for your input!!

Eric

 

[Don Cohen]

I'd love to play around with the original Raw file for the first shot. My gmail account can receive attachments up to 20mb, so that will be plenty for a single raw file.

You can send it to dlcphoto at gmail dot com. I guess there might be a limit on your ISP's email account, but hopefully it will allow 10mb, as most of my 1DMk2 files are a little under that.

If that doesn't work, we can figure something else out.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Eric,

These pictures represent the American Eagle. Not only are they super as photographs of a bird they are in the realm of what people might pay large sums for using commercially or owning as a great print for the bank, law firm, office, fire-station or home.

Asher

 

[Rachel Foster]

Stunning. These are what I aspire to one day.

 

[Eric Diller]

I'd love to play around with the original Raw file for the first shot. My gmail account can receive attachments up to 20mb, so that will be plenty for a single raw file.

You can send it to dlcphoto at gmail dot com. I guess there might be a limit on your ISP's email account, but hopefully it will allow 10mb, as most of my 1DMk2 files are a little under that.

If that doesn't work, we can figure something else out.

Don,

Raw file is 21.5Mb. I going to try and email it but if it doesn't make it I may need a plan B!

 

[Don Cohen]

OK - thanks Eric, received your Raw file, and was able to work with it in CS4. I normally use Capture One 3.7.4 for my raw conversions, but it doesn't recognize the newer Nikon cameras, so it wasn't an option. I converted with Adobe's Camera Raw, basically just using the default settings that came up. I then did all the editing in CS4.

I mainly used the Shadows and Highlights tool, along with some use of Levels. I almost always use these in combination with the History Brush (to restore specific areas which are adversely effected by the overall adjustment I've made, such as blown out highlights). I tweaked color balance some to remove a bit of a yellow cast, and applied a little Unsharp Mask selectively.

Here's the original image, followed by what I came up with, for easier comparison:

Original

Edited

I'll be interested in your opinion, and that of others as well.


P.S. As an side, initially I couldn't see how to convert it into a 16-bit TIF, so started with the 8-bit TIF. I was shocked by how quickly the image degraded as I made the various adjustments (readily shown by viewing the histogram which contained multiple gaps). I then figured out how to go to 16-bit TIF, and this made all the difference in the world.

This was something I already knew in theory, but was impressed with how big a real-world difference it made!

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

..I'll be interested in your opinion, and that of others as well...

Hi Don,

Since you've asked, here is my opinion in short. I can see that you have managed to add detail to the wings, which is good. But you have also lowered the saturation of the yellows and oranges/reds, which I don't like compared to the original.

Here is what I did using the Eric's small jpg file in CS4:

Original

Edited by Cem

Cheers,

 

[Don Cohen]

Good point, Cem. I hadn't paid much attention to that aspect of the image, but once I take a look, I have to agree.

Here's an updated version of my image, with boosted saturation in those areas.

Updated Edited Version

By the way, does anybody know how to (or at least what it is called) superimpose 2 images, so that you click on it to see one image or the other. That would be an ideal way to make the kinds of comparisons we're trying to do here.

I would also wonder whether the forum software would allow that kind of image (which I imagine might be using java or flash or something along those lines).

 

[nicolas claris]

I would also wonder whether the forum software would allow that kind of image (which I imagine might be using java or flash or something along those lines).

For security reasons, Java is not enabled. Nor Flash, wich imho could be, but it's up to Asher…

 

[Asher Kelman]

For security reasons, Java is not enabled. Nor Flash, wich imho could be, but it's up to Asher…

Why don't we find out? The other option would be a little applet which OPF would push to you and it would then allow that capability.

Asher

 

[Don Cohen]

So how do we proceed?

On my end, someone needs to tell me what I'm trying to create with the two images, like the formal name of the object. I now have Microsoft Expression Web 2.0, as well a Photoshop CS4, and suppose between the 2 of them, I should be able to do something like this. I just don't know where to start.

Could be a very useful function on those boards, giving a great "before and after" view of images.

 

[Eric Diller]

Looks Good Don, I like the added light on the wings. I guess it is all a matter of taste of preference. Thought about opening the shadows even more as you did but was afraid it would be to much. I was wrong.
Thanks to all wow played with the photo, they all look great, Even the originall lol

 

[Asher Kelman]

So how do we proceed?

On my end, someone needs to tell me what I'm trying to create with the two images, like the formal name of the object. I now have Microsoft Expression Web 2.0, as well a Photoshop CS4, and suppose between the 2 of them, I should be able to do something like this. I just don't know where to start.

Could be a very useful function on those boards, giving a great "before and after" view of images.

There's already the mouse over function which allows one to see what was before. Just need to get Sean's attention for this.

Asher

 

[Don Cohen]

Looks Good Don, I like the added light on the wings. I guess it is all a matter of taste of preference. Thought about opening the shadows even more as you did but was afraid it would be to much. I was wrong.
Thanks to all wow played with the photo, they all look great, Even the originall lol

You're certainly right about individual preference having a major role to play here. There's no arbitrary 'right or wrong' - that's where the artistic component of photography comes into play.

I did open up the shadows, but effort was also devoted to maintaining the detail in the bright white feathers on the top of its head. The original Raw file showed that there was definitely good detail present there, so the exposure itself was quite good. But because areas like that are so close to the top of the range, it's very easy to blow those areas during post-processing, and lose the detail that the original image contained. So it's always a good idea to pay close attention to areas of bright white feathers.

And I wish this were my image! I had a person come in to a store where the owner displays and sells a few of my images, and this is exactly the kind of shot he was looking for! I don't have one in my files, unfortunately.

Thanks for sharing and letting me play around with this wonderful photo.

 

[Husain Alfraid]

looking crisp! that is all what i can say

the edited version look decent as well

 

[Asher Kelman]

Still, hard to beat Eagles!