Today's Photo Of a Bald Eagle: This morning I went to an Bald Eagle's nest about 7 miles from my house to photograph any activity that was happening down there. I located one of Eagles...

Adubin Loc: Indialantic, Florida

This morning I went to an Bald Eagle's nest about 7 miles from my house to photograph any activity that was happening down there. I located one of Eagles west of its nest on a power pole. Below is the Tech Info.
Camera - Nikon D300
Lens - Nikon 500mm f-4 manual focus and with a 2X Teleconverter
ISO - 640
Speed - 1/1000
f-stop - f11
Post processing
Cropped into 6% of its original size.
I used Lighroom 3, Photoshop CS4, and Topaz Adjust 4 to enhance it.

I would appreciate feedback on this photo. Thank you, Arnold

Bald Eagle Located About 7 Miles From My House

TessSC Loc: Cayce,SC

That is one beautiful bird and you captured it well.

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

I see them all the time but have yet to capture one on film. Great job! I love those Topaz plug-ins. You did a very nice job without over-doing it!

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

The only con I would have is that it's 'slightly' out of focus, but with a 500, probably zoomed all the way out, the tele-converter, manual focus and the crop job... heck it just doesn't get much better than that. No way I could have gotten my focus that close under all those conditions. Very good capture indeed, and a lot of talent.

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

At 640 what app did you use to clean up the noise?

Adubin Loc: Indialantic, Florida

Tess, Thanks for your feedback, Arnold

TessSC wrote:

That is one beautiful bird and you captured it well.

Val Loc: Minnesota

Adubin wrote:

This morning I went to an Bald Eagle's nest about ... (show quote)

You have the adequate equipment, I just think you lost the sharpness and the detail with the ISO setting and the crop.

Adubin Loc: Indialantic, Florida

John, Thanks for taking your time and leaving me feedback on this photo. Yes, I had noise in the blue sky but I used the blur tool in CS4 to get rid of it. The soft focus resulted from using the 2X Teleconveter. Arnold

Adubin Loc: Indialantic, Florida

Val, The main reason why this photo wasn't any sharper was because I had to use my 2X Teleconverter. Arnold

Val wrote:

quote=Adubin This morning I went to an Bald Eagle... (show quote)

johnrennie Loc: North Florida

Adubin wrote:

John, Thanks for taking your time and leaving me feedback on this photo. Yes, I had noise in the blue sky but I used the blur tool in CS4 to get rid of it. The soft focus resulted from using the 2X Teleconveter. Arnold

I used a 2x on my 70-300 before and with the loss of auto focus it's tough... really tough. We found a nest of Osprey's and I couldn't get a single image in focus.

Lots of respect for how close you came and it's honestly not noticeable unless closely analyzed.

You used the blur tool in CS4? Dont get me wrong, you did an impeccable job, but that must have taken you a long time. I see you use Topaz Adjust, have you tried their other plug-in Topaz DeNoise? LightRoom 3 even has a descent noise filter.

I use Imagenomic Noiseware. I set it up as an action so its a one-step process. A lot of photographers balk at it because they claim you lose clarity.

The photo below was shot at 1600 ISO during the magic hour when the sun was low on the horizon obviously a lot of artifacts due to all the lows. I ran the Noiseware filter then went back and spot-brushed areas I wanted sharpened by using the unsharp mask filter on a masked layer. I think the noise removal came out pretty well without losing sharpness and it took me about 5 minutes to adjust the image.

Adubin Loc: Indialantic, Florida

John, Depends on what I'm doing, I have used Nik Dfine, LR 3, and/or PS CS4 for noise elimination. That is extremely nice photo you enhanced that you took with an ISO of 1600. Arnold

johnrennie wrote:

quote=Adubin John, Thanks for taking your time an... (show quote)

Joanbj

RE: the eagle. At first I thought your eagle must be a sub species or something. I live in Alaska with bald eagleslanding on the ground in front of my house. Their brown color is much darker. I thing you "topaz-ed" it too much. I could be a bit darker and it would look more natural while still having the feather definition

Joanbj

Excuse the typos.

Adubin Loc: Indialantic, Florida

Joan, The only enhancements I made on this photo was from LR 3. What do you think of this one? BTW - I'm not a good speller, so don't worry about any mistakes you leave on my forum threads. :) Arnold

Joanbj wrote:

RE: the eagle. At first I thought your eagle must be a sub species or something. I live in Alaska with bald eagleslanding on the ground in front of my house. Their brown color is much darker. I thing you "topaz-ed" it too much. I could be a bit darker and it would look more natural while still having the feather definition

No Topaz 4 Adjustment on This Photo

Joanbj

Yes, that looks much better-much richer color. Good job!