A Bald Eagle Portrait

[wilsan]

Hello to everyone.
Well as I stated on the title here is two photos that I took to a Bald Eagle quite time ago. I named a Bald Eagle Portrait just for the way that the end result came up. Photos were taked on the wild however the angle of the light let me close pretty tight the F stop and shoot at a fast Shutter S. some post processing to black out the BG and here is the final result hope that everyone enjoy it. Critiques and Comments are always well apreciated.
Camera was D300 with a Nikkor 70-300 VR

[gahspidy]

Wilsan, these are both very good. I like the compositions.
The moments were great and the sharpness and dof excellent.
My only dislike here is the green foliage? in both of these. Were these foliage in front of your lens somehow? They are so vibrant and distracting and really take away from what are otherwise very nice photos. The second picture would be easy to remove it, but the first not so easy.

Nice work, wilsan,

[wilsan]

Wilsan, these are both very good. I like the compsoitions.
The moments were great and the sharpness and dof excellent.
My only dislike here is the green foliage? in both of these. Were these foliage in front of your lens somehow? they are so vibrant and distracting and really take away from what are otherwise very nice photos. The second picture would be easy to remove it, but the first not so easy.

Nice work, wilsan,

Thanks for the comments.
The Bird was like 50 feet away from me. I was so exited about seen a bald eagle that I don't want to miss the shot. I try to squish the camera trough the trees but that was the best that I can get as soon it heard the camera look at me and took off.
At the beginning I tough on remove them, but that was the only thing that let me show up that still a wild photo and not an studio portrait. I will do editions of both of them without the foliage. To make comparisons.

[Asmarlak]

It seems like you tried to fix the white feathers over exposure and it came out looking strange, blurred, and without detail.

[armando_m]

Nice captures !

Once looked at with more attention, I have the same comment than Asmarlak, the feather detail is gone , and looks odd, specially on the first one, top of the head

About the leafs, how about lowering brightness and saturation a bit ? that should be easier than trying to clone them out ....

[draymorton]

Both are great! I do agree with Gary, though, about the leaves. Clone them out of the second image for sure.

If you did try to fix overexposed feathers here (via multiply or whatever), I think the effect is kind of cool. Whatever was done gives both images a painterly look that, to me, adds interest.

[wilsan]

Thanks for all your comments really appreciated.

In my opinion everything as sharp that it could be the texture of the top feathers are like that.

The micro feathers on the head of the bald eagle are use to break the wing and maintain their body temperature with pocket of air between their feathers. Overlapping feathers can form a dense covering, which the birds can open or close at will. The bald eagle has several layers of feathers, each serving a different function. Under the outer layer of feathers is an inner layer of down or smaller feathers. The inter locking of feathers is an astonishing design of nature and I think that is may create the illusion of a blury feathers.

I will try to take more photos from this amazing bird I will travel to MS next weekend to the same lake hope spot some others.

[LRRP]

Amazing how you got that close - even with a 300mm - beautiful captures..

r

[GB1]

My first impression was that of an artistic creation. Reading more, I see that these are legit, so, I had to rethink why I thought that.

I believe that it's the eagle's head seems to float in air, without a base (body). I think this means that the feathers below his white ones are just too dark. Lighting those up (by lighting the shadows in your favorite editing program) may do the trick.

Those out-of-focus green leaves are somewhat distracting, but not fatal. They can easily be cloned out on the bottom image.

G

[LeeIs]

both are great. i love number 1 though. really awesome portrait. well done.

[yayitsrobby]

wow... those are incredible shots. the leaves are perfect too! not too noticeable but add that extra touch

[wilsan]

Guys sorry for the late response I was very busy with my job.

Thanks for all the comments everyone it make feel very good that my photos like especially in a community were I've been seen a lot of great shots.

GB thanks for the tip about the leaves. I try to get them out of the way but on the first picture OMG what a pain.

LRRP I was on one side of the river and the Eagle was on the other side. looking for fishes.