Bald Eagle

[shadowwolf32]

Finally got to play with my first camera while in Florida for the holidays! I know I have much to learn and I'm definately looking forward to your critiques and advice.

[jiminyClickit]

shadowwolf32, Welcome

Didn't forget you, but your post did slip over to next page as I was posting new ones. Never fear, someone always catches up. Yahoo has a page enlarger, so I'm sure this is fairly sharp. White feathers are still mostly intact (just a little blowout over left eye), and right eye has some detail (lightening would be even better). Some cropping of mostly right side and some top and bottom to maintain aspect ratio would uncenter bird, keeping the symbolism of stripes. Good shot, a little tweak could make it grand.

[shadowwolf32]

Thanks for your comments and especially the compliment! I took your advice, did some tweaking, and here are the results. I think it looks much better myself. Any other thoughts/opinions/suggestions?

[jiminyClickit]

shadowwolf32,

Thanks for patience, we do as much as possible to pass along whatever we know, whatever we've learned here. I too like this trimmed version. It's only slightly tighter than I would cut top and right, personal preference mostly. Do you think eagle looks sharper, being larger?

Right eye looks good, left side might be lighter than necessary, but that could be the enlargement from cropping.

[BCP]

I definitely like the edited version better. Very nice (and patriotic) shot.

[psykon99]

Originally Posted by BCP

I definitely like the edited version better. Very nice (and patriotic) shot.

I actually like the trimming off the right side, but I think it's too trimmed on the top now. I liked the space above the eagle's head on the first one. Unfortunately, that would have made for an odd shape crop if you're looking to print.

Might have worked out better if more of the flag were in frame with the eagle in front of it rather than to the side. I'm not sure if it would have been possible though.

What I DO like about the trimmed version is having the eagle off to the right third of the frame. It creates a very nice balance to the shot. I also like the detail in the brown feathers.

[xxpinballxx]

Nice shot and congrats on the new camera. At looking closer at the head there is detail in the feathers so its not totally blown out in the white areas. It could be recovered with a bit of photoshop play to bring some the feather detail out more and darken it a bit.
The crop is nice but the color looks a bit flat to me. Maybe a curves adjustment layer or just upping the saturation a bit.

[shadowwolf32]

Thank you all for your comments and opinions! You've all made some very good points, so I'm going to experiment a little more with this one and see what more I can do with it.