Post Processing tips for Eagle image

[gaelicsea]

I was so surprised to see this eagle sitting on a house across the way from my neighborhood. I snapped pictures as quickly as I could before he flew away. I love this one but the lighting is so dark. I tried lightening but it still doesn't do the image justice. Can anyone help me with the post processing I can do to make this image pop? The first image has no post processing, the next two were my attempts at lightening and sharpening.

I have both LR3 and PS-CS2. Thanks!

No PP:


PP1:


PP2:

[Geoff F]

That is the problem with shooting into the light, Teresa. You could have used a little more positive exposure compensation at the time of shooting but that would have meant increasing the Iso to 800, or reducing one or more of your other settings. And I'm not over keen on doing any of that.

At the moment, you can continue lightening the overall scene and be prepared to lose the sky; or work with a layer and mask to apply the effects just to the desired areas. Which may be a little tricky.

Alternatively, I suppose you could select and extract the bird/roof then brighten them and replace onto another sky. Possible but the edges are starting to get a little soft so I'm not sure how effective it would be. And requires a little time/skill.

There doesn't appear to be a lot of noise there so that is one thing in your favour.

Adding a little Local Contrast Enhancement, say Unsharp Mask around 30% and 50 pixels, or a little less, may give it slightly more 'pop'. Or create a duplicate layer and set the Blend Mode to Soft Light at a suitable opacity.

If you get sharpening problems, it sometimes helps to create a duplicate layer and sharpen that but set the Blend Mode to Luminosity. Adding a mask can selectively vary the sharpening effect.

The other option is to stick with what you currently have. Either way it is a good real life action shot.

[gaelicsea]

Thank you so much Geoff for taking the time to view and comment. I will definitely try some of your suggestions!