Sophia Schade
November 2023 - I Love You
Original
About the Image(s)
Photo taken on Friday October 27ht around 9;30AM At Widgeon Point Preserve at Lemond Island, S.C. It is about 25 minutes from my home.
I have been going to the nest for the last week almost everyday trying to photograph both eagles on the same tree. When I got there the sky was very gloomy .. The light was not as I was expecting. The female flew into the nest and then the male flew on to the tree by the nest. I was praying that the female will fly to the male. After about 20 minutes the female flew close to her mate as she knew I wanted to photograph them together. They started talking to each other with their backs to me. In a split second they both started looking the same way and were able to capture this photo. as you can tell from the original. I cropped the photo, removed some of the tree branches and replaced the sky. I used my Nikon z9 / hand held- setting f5.6 1/1600 secon ISO 1200 - 500 prime lense. .. I wish I had put the camera on a tripod, reduced my speed and my ISO. What do you think?
This round’s discussion is now closed!
13 comments posted
I love it too!!! And the story because we often have no idea what effort it takes to get an image. I feel the rh bird is the dominant in the image because its sharper then the lh one so I used the AI Generative Fill in Photoshop to extend the canvas to give it more space. Then I went a bit crazy and used it again to remove the branches intruding into the frame. I did notice you had cloned the rh branch to fix the lh branch so it might look that this is a composite of the same bird so I did some more cloning on the lh branch to make it look different. Posted: 11/01/2023 19:01:46
Thank you Mark for your feedback! I am traveling for the last 29 days in Costa Rica and be back home the first week of December.. I really like your suggestions and I can't wait to get back home and play with it! Posted: 11/30/2023 08:59:37
Sophia, what a great shot! I took your submitted image and made a duplicate image and then used the multiply blend mode to create a more contrasty image. I then made a stamp image and did a little dodging on both of the eagles and a slight curves adjustment. I used the remove tool to delete the branches for a final image. Very quick and simple, what do you think? Posted: 11/03/2023 16:07:05
Thank you! I like what Mark did and also your suggestion. Thank you for taking time to critique my photo. Posted: 11/30/2023 09:00:59
Sophia, you have a great photo of a mated pair of eagles and I like what you have done. I do like richer vibrancy/saturation like Richard's work, rather than your pale feathers. At a shutter speed of 1/1600 you got a steady shot. You would not have to have a tripod or faster shutter unless they were flying, diving for a fish, grabbing a fish in their talons. Your z9 can handle the ISO 1200 without much noise. For field photography when a tripod is bulky, consider a pistol grip ball-head on a mono-pod (Manfrotto joystick pistol grip head). Jim Posted: 11/04/2023 14:50:27
Thank you Jim. Great suggestion on the mono pot.. do you have a model number on the grip? Thanks for the suggestion Posted: 11/30/2023 09:02:40
Sophia, you want Manfrotto 222 joystick head $79.96 or the Bogen 3265 Joystick grip ball head $59.99
Ask Santa. Jim Posted: 11/30/2023 10:55:37
Ask Santa. Jim Posted: 11/30/2023 10:55:37
Your bird photography is outstanding. I do prefer the shot with the branch removed, the suggestions made are very fitting Posted: 11/07/2023 14:28:09
Thank you Barbara! And thanks for taking December off! I am still in Costa Rica! I can't wait to share some of my photos.. here is one I thought you might like Posted: 11/30/2023 09:04:38
Your picture was well worth the wait and I like the work that Richard has done. In both your modified version and Richard's the end of the branch for each bird looks exactly the same. Once I noticed this and thought it was cloned it spoilt the whole image for me as I then thought perhaps one bird may have been added to the image (I know it hasn't as you have shown us the original). On the top branch I would let it extend out of the picture as per the original. Obviously in my copy below you then need to repeat Richard's work. Posted: 11/09/2023 05:06:04
Excellent advice and observation! I have been in Costa Rica for the last 4 weeks and can't wait until I share some of my photos with the group . Here is one that you might like Posted: 11/30/2023 09:07:23
Sophia, it's an extraordinary photograph, and your processing is excellent. I reviewed all of the suggested modifications by our group members and settled on Mark's as the one that most appeals to me. (Note: Even though Mark used Generative Fill, you have enough in your original image that you could have simply done a different crop.)
Beautiful photograph!
Posted: 11/23/2023 12:09:58
Beautiful photograph!
Posted: 11/23/2023 12:09:58
Thank you so much! I like this and we Marks suggestions I believe it will make a nice print! Posted: 11/30/2023 08:57:37