Botched Bald Eagle Shots

[tanner07]

Greetings,

I was out shooting my resident bald eagles this afternoon and came home with some rather disappointing shots -- not the first time this has happened. I was hoping for some pointers!

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/989/eagle1.jpg

Rebel XT
70-300IS (IS switched to Mode 1)
F 7.1
ISO 400
1/1000s
300mm

I would have loved to had this one turn out, what with the beak wide open and all. It's been cropped, but that's it. I am wondering why it is so dark and filled with shadows...I was shooting in Aperature Priority and would have loved to had the bird lit better.

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/7644/eagle2d.jpg

Same settings, besides the 1/700s exposure.

Not only is this one dark, it is also out of focus. How come? AF locks on, I hit the shutter, and wind up with this. What gives? Not the first time this has happened, either. I suppose this is probably a result of the focal point being behind the eagle and me being too slow to shoot the pic?

Any guidance is MUCH APPRECIATED!!

Thank you all in advance.

[JimMcrae]

Re. focus. Did you have it set AI Servo? If not, the short delay between focus lock and you hitting the shutter could be enough for the bird to move out of focus? I would also have used a wider aperture - on my 100-400 that would be f/5.6 - and go for a higher ISO. The 1/1000 shutter speed should've been okay for this shot but may not be fast enough for other birds with faster wings.

Re. the darkness, try upping the exposure compensation by a couple of stops. It's exposed for the brighter background instead of the bird. If you shot these in RAW you may be able to recover some of the detail.

Still nice to get shots of such a magnificent creature, even if they're not perfect. Hope this helps.

[Levina de Ruijter]

What Jim said, plus use only the middle AF point to focus and turn off IS.

[Green Man]

Much better than I got last week when 2 flew over my house and all I had was a kit lens. I was just happy to capture anything, I live in town and this is the first time ever seeing eagles here, luckily I had my camera with me while playing with the dogs in the yard.

[PhotosGuy]

I am wondering why it is so dark and filled with shadows...I was shooting in Aperature Priority Av is still an "auto" mode, & it requires you to guesstimate the EC. Look at this:
Post #47 (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=5191658&postcount=47)
Click the "post #47" at the top-right of that post if you'd like more info on the subject.

[tils]

I think it's also a metering issue, it looks like it was trying to meter for the bright sky behind the bird, which made the eagle itself come in way under exposed, which is why it's dark and in so many shadows. Spot metering might have worked better on the fly.

[DarenM]

spot metering is associated with the focus point, also a1 servo, then exposure does not lock in until you take the picture, increase ec to plus 1 to compensate for background...

[gregpphoto]

Learn from the mistakes pointed out above and be happy that you got to see such a beautiful and rare creature in the wild. I've seen exactly one in my three years of serious (10 trips or more per year) backpacking, from 100 yards away, a juvenile that flew away as I took about two steps towards it haha.

[DarenM]

Learn from the mistakes pointed out above and be happy that you got to see such a beautiful and rare creature in the wild. I've seen exactly one in my three years of serious (10 trips or more per year) backpacking, from 100 yards away, a juvenile that flew away as I took about two steps towards it haha.

Come north, you can usually find quite a few along the St Lawrence River in the winter, unless you are actually looking for them :)

[tanner07]

Ahh, wow. A plethora of useful tips and information. I couldn't be more excited to go out and try out these suggestions. I wasn't even aware of what I was doing wrong and now I can't wait to see if I can turn out some better images.

Thank you very much to everybody who lent a hand!