Young bald eagle

Hey all, new guy here. Great forum you have here with tons of info! I'm fairly new to serious photography and hope to learn a lot here. I've been hoping to get a shot of an eagle and stumbled upon this guy a few weeks ago. I'd appreciate any thoughts or critiques. Thanks! Taken with a T3i with 100-400 at 400mm.

IMAGE LINK: http://flic.kr/p/gysA7​r

That's a very nice shot; welcome to the forum.
Al

Welcome to the forum, that's a great shot. Your exposure is right on and it looks like your 100-400 is nice and sharp.

Very nice image! Bravo!

Tack sharp and well done,welcome.

Thanks guys! Definitely my best picture so far. I was amazed how close he let me get before taking off.

Here's the original image off the camera if anyone has any editing tips. Sorry, Jpeg only, no RAW.

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Maybe a touch too much color pop... the browns and the yellow legs look a little fake.. very little though. The other thing I like to do is to spot adjust the head, specifically the eye area, a little brighter. Most shots of birds shot up from the ground, end up with a shadow across the head. A bit more emphasis on the eye by reducing the head shadow would be great.

However, those are picky observations, and only because you asked. The edited image you put up was very good on its own. If you really want to play with edits, you should be using RAW. The only thing jpeg is good for straight from the camera is for taking the memory card to the drug store and printing them directly.

Thanks boufa, appreciate the input! I know I really need to get into shooting RAW and doing more (quality wise) post processing. Right now all my post processing is done on an Ipad with Snapspeed and sometimes photoshop touch. I need to get a decent computer and some editing software if I really want to take my images to the next level.

Nighthound wrote in post #16363548
Your exposure is right on

The first several shots I took were underexposed before I realized I had to compensate for the bright sky. Guess I could have used spot metering but its easy to forget some of that when you're in the moment trying to get a good shot before the bird flys away. Thats why they say practice makes perfect.

Nice shot, you were able to get the eye color. The dark eyes of juvie eagles give me fits trying to get them to come out right. Well done.

Thanks! I was lucky enough to have him sit there long enough for me to take lots of shots with various settings.

Avalanche3319 wrote in post #16370209
Thanks! I was lucky enough to have him sit there long enough for me to take lots of shots with various settings.

You were lucky I never have had one sit long enough to experiment lucky to get one shot much less several.

Nice photo I like it.

Sweet shot!