caption?

[Ian McLachlan]

White Bellied Sea eagles on Kangaroo Island .This pair have fledged one large female offspring in December and are pairing up again for later this year. Iron Stone Cliffs behind are even brighter than shown.
A9III
1/4000 F4.5 iso 2000
GM OSS 300 2.8 + 1.4
HH from boat.
Comments appreciated

• SONY ILCE-9M3
• FE 300mm F2.8 GM OSS + 1.4X Teleconverter
• ƒ/4.5
• 420mm
• 1/4000s
• ISO 2000
• Flash not fired
• Sat, 25 January 2025 3:51 PM
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 14.1.1 (Macintosh)

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Caption - Brace yourself!
Nice capture Ian, regarding the bright cliffs maybe consider processing the raw file as layers?
The image as a whole seems to be perhaps a little yellow and a little lacking in contrast and colour. I would also consider removing or disguising what appears to be a wooden platform at the base.

 

[Gerald Kelberg]

"Here's Johnny!"

Nice moment of action, Ian. I have never had the pleasure of photographing this species, so can't really comment on the colour nor the light. But I agree with Jon that the background cliff face could be darkened and simplified to contrast the birds better.
Also, you have some vestiges of retouching (?) on the left side corners and maybe also bottom right.

Interesting image, thanks for sharing.

G.

 

[Daniel Cadieux]

The background is a bit too prominent for my personal taste, but otherwise I love the mossy platform and action. Those talons look like they are going to hurt!! I'd clean up the two extreme left corners from whatever processing went on there. And agreed with Jon about the platform - todays' remove or generative fill tools work wonders on tweaks like that.

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Ian ... stunning shot , love the landing pose of the left bird .
Not sure about the chosen WB ... way too yellow for my taste , does not look like a morning / evening golden hour shot ??!!!
But I might be well wrong .

TFS Andreas

 

[Ian McLachlan]

Thanks for all your comments.
I made a mistake in photoshop which led to the problem in the bottom corners. Well spotted.

When it comes to selecting around feathers, what tool and technique is most capable?

In many of my images the feather points are abundant and close together. Selecting by hand is too time consuming and auto selection tools I've tried are too imperfect.

Someone recommended Mask AI from Topaz, but it seems to be discontinued.
Any help appreciated.