Jim Horn, QPSA
September 2023 - Eagles lock talons cartwheeling
Original
About the Image(s)
Sony α7Riv, Sony FE 200-600 5.6-6.3 G lens, 1.4x teleconverter, f/9, 1/3000sec, ISO 800, 840mm, RRS Versa TVC-45 MK2 tripod, Manfrotto ball-head.
Some people want to call this the courtship death dive. I took this in May, well after the courtship. From the way these eagles flew at each other, it looked more like territorial aggression. In Post-processing, I used Photoshop to crop, Camera RAW Filter for shadows, highlights, saturation, dehaze. The shadows needed the dodge tool. I used Topaz DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI.
10 comments posted
Great capture. Full of action and story-telling. My only suggestion would be to crop in tighter to the birds. This would bring them more in focus and alleviate some of the sky that doesn't add much to the image. Posted: 09/01/2023 11:37:03
Mike, I agree. Dr Isaac agreed and made a significant improvement. see below. Posted: 09/01/2023 13:15:54
Jim, peak of action. It can not get any better than this. Nature at its best. A must agree with Mike with respect to cropping even tighter, but we can already see a halo around the eagles from the already magno crop. Further crop will deteriorate the image even more. BTW the sensor of your camera needs cleaning. On second thought I took the image to Topaz Gigapixels and increased the size of the file x4 and was able to process the image and do an additional crop. Added some blue to the background. Since the birds are pulling each other in different direction, the can sit in the middle of the frame Posted: 09/01/2023 13:03:45
Isac, this is exactly what I needed to see. I did see that my sensor cleaning was not thorough. How did you add blue to a boring, overcast cloudy sky? Jim Posted: 09/01/2023 13:15:00
With the masking brushes in Lightroom or ACR select the background only and using the temperature slide bring it down towards blue Posted: 09/01/2023 13:31:22
Definitely an action packed photo. I agree the added blue to to sky enhances the photo. Posted: 09/02/2023 07:23:56
Thank you all. I've redone the photo with your suggestions and methods. I did not like the intense blue because the cartwheeling eagles were just above the horizon. I wanted to keep the sharp details. Here it is. Posted: 09/04/2023 15:05:15
I like the blue added to the sky! Posted: 09/06/2023 12:49:03
I love these scenes, and you are blessed to capture it. I agree with the comments, and really like what Dr. Isaac did to the shot including the blue sky color. It is so hard to process a shot like this, as I have had the same difficulties. Good pic to share with the group. Posted: 09/10/2023 09:23:42
Great action shot. I like what Isaac did with the photo and agree with the comments of others. Posted: 09/20/2023 09:09:29