Bald Eagle Portrait

[Tom Barry]

This bald eagle was in a rescue center in Juneau, Alaska, when I photographed it in 2006. The background was a ugly, messy curtain. Going over old files today, I decided to replace the background with a solid color (though I am not fond of or very good at replacing original content in photographs, I thought this was an acceptable improvement). I also used Topaz Detail 2 very lightly to boost detail without a HDR look:

[Klickit]

Such a fierce looking bird - magnificent. The detail is great. I hope s/he's flying again. My only thoughts on the background are that maybe a grad applied to it might take away some of the flat look?

[Colin Southern]

Hi Tom,

I thought of a bit of a parody of my recent bird shot ...

"I taught I taw a puddy tat ... I did - I did ... EXCELLENT! {big, evil grin} (Bring it on!)

[Tom Barry]

Such a fierce looking bird - magnificent. The detail is great. I hope s/he's flying again. My only thoughts on the background are that maybe a grad applied to it might take away some of the flat look?

Yeah, I'm not altogether happy with the solid color. I've got several other versions with more subdued, but still solid, colors. I may take a shot at putting in a defocused natural background.

[Sahil]

I gave it a try. I hope you don't mind..

[Tom Barry]

I don't mind at all. Thanks for taking the time to help.

[rick55]

Hi, Tom;

This image is definitely worth redoing the background. I'm with you: I don't normally like that stuff. But this is such a spectacular shot that it's really worth it. If you look closely, you can see a few artifacts at the edges, but that isn't the focus: it isn't as if it's a cute, fuzzy critter, or you're showing whiskers. The grad that Sahil did helps, and I think the bottom line is that this is one of those that's really worth processing this way.

Cheers,
Rick

[Peter Ryan]

I gave it a try. I hope you don't mind..

I do prefer the grad effect and I like the diagonal application rather than from top-to-bottom.