Bald Eagle

Good detail and I like the pose-the way he's looking down intently as if he has spied some prey. For my taste, I might at least like to see how this would look with the eagle more towards the upper right corner, as it might give the eagle more room to fly into and more of a sense of him looking down from a height. He seems too centered as it is now. That's my two cents worth.

Congrats again in finding your Long Island eagle, Luke. This is very nice action position, just as Allen already said. Not as "pretty" as your previous post, but more interesting. In addition, the techs on this one look nice -- sharp and well exposed. I'll also add another two cents to Allen's suggestion about the comp, especially since would like to see it looking down into the frame instead of out of the bottom. (Pretty soon you may have more than a nickel's worth of advice!)

Luke, this looks sharper but still has that dull low light/low contrast look to me. I pulled it into PS and used a levels layer to pull the black point in to about 25 and the white point in a ways too (and maybe further with some masking so you don't lose the brightest whites in the head and tail), then added a bit of contrast in curves and thought it brought out a little more.

Brian,

Feel free to post the image or e-mail it to me. The sky was overcast (obviously) and the sun (behind the clouds) was behind the subject. Since this is the first time I've photographed an adult BE I don't have a lot of experience in what it "should" look like (how dark the darks and how white the whites) so any help is appreciated.

I did also push things in Lightroom to make it more of a high-key image. And If I'm really lucky I can get a dimes worth out of you guys!

Nice sharp image of this Eagle and I like the pose. I agree with Allen and Wayne about the comp.

This one definitely looks sharper Luke; however, I don't like the wing position as much in this one. i agree with the comp suggestion below moving it top right.

Hey Luke,
I'm liking your Eagle series so far and as you are finding out, any encounter with an Eagle is a good thing. There have been some excellent comments and advice so far and none that I can argue with. Now here is another 2 cent suggestion towards filling up your change purse. In the shooting conditions that I am seeing here, the best results are accomplished by setting your exposure compensation somewhere between + 2/3 to + 1 and 2/3 to obtain proper exposure of your subject against this type of sky. Sometimes there is little time for setting EC and that is why anticipation is key in these situations.
Man !

Luke, here's a quick version. I cropped your 1200 pixel image down to 720 pixels to focus on how the changes impact the eagle (i.e., this is not a comp suggestion). This is with the blacks pulled in to 25 in levels and a bit of contrast in curves. let me know what you think.

Brian - thanks a lot for the changes I really see the improvement.

Thanks to all for the info and encouraging me to take the few extra minutes to get things right