This is a repost for the challenge category. The herring, hooligan and salmon fry are running in the streams that feed into the tide flats in May. The Bald Eagles have been very hungry all winter and flock to the tide flats to get as many of the small fishes that they can. I just sit down in the grasses at the edge of the tide flats and snap photos as they fly over & by me.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
This is one of my favorite Bald Eagle photos. If there is anything that anyone sees that doesn’t work for them I would like to hear it (especially in regards to things that would affect printing large).
Technical Details
Sony a6500, FE70200 f/2.8 GM @ 75mm (112mm w/crop factor), ISO-100, f/4.5, 1/4000, hand held.
What an action shot! The wing spread and that tail! Just fantastic. I didn’t see anything that wouldn’t print well, but I didn’t pixel peep either. The majesty of the background suits the bird really well.
It’s a great eagle image (while in a great environment), and I can easily see why it’s a favorite!
The only real issue I notice is that the color temperature of eagle is warmer than the BG.
The BG has a fair amount of a cooler blue color temperature.
They don’t seem to match in terms of color temperature IMHO.
I did a version where I increased the color temperature of the BG and the clouds to +25 but left the eagle as is, then I reduced the color temperature of the whole image (global) to -6
Then I did another version where I selected the eagle alone and reduced the color temperature of just the eagle to -8 (Leaving the BG as it was).
I did two versions so you could see which one you prefer, the cooler blue snow, or the warmer white snow.
I also downsized the original for comparison purposes.
And of course you don’t have to do either of them, that’s up to you
Hi Mervin. Thanks for taking all that time and effort to show examples of what you were perceiving. I think there were a couple things that might have caused the appeared difference in white balance between the eagle and the background mountain. One is that you can’t see in this photo that most of the sky above and behind me was bright blue as the clouds were gathered around the mountains. That typically affects the snow color even when it’s directly lit by the sun. Second is that the eagle was only a few feet off the marsh grasses which are brown in the early spring and you’re seeing the underside of the eagle which would be affected by the warmer reflected light from the grasses. Third, the mountains are almost a mile away while the eagle was only a few feet away. Fourth, eagles are quite dirty and brown when they are mucking around in the muddy tide flats for small fish so their feathers are not bright white to begin with so they would look warmer in the direct sunlight (especially the underside which are getting light from the brown grasses). As far as reality goes, based on my 70 years of living in this area and having been there for the shot, the original is probably the most correct. As far as what’s most pleasing to the eye (which would be a consideration for a print) the version you posted with the warmer light on the mountains would be my choice.
Thanks again for taking the time to process and demonstrate!
