A wildlife shot with artificial light. This is a Martial Eagle. If you're working with captive birds, why settle for natural lighting anyway? This was originally meant to be shot with three good wireless strobes, but one failed (aka broke into pieces) at the start of the shoot. Ouch, my wallet. So i decided to take a low-key shot instead. Here the flash is zoomed in to 70mm, about 6ft from the bird on the left. This is actually in broad daylight but against a dark background. Glass stopped down to f/11 at ISO100 and flash sync shutter speed means that you don't see any natural light at all though, and the angle of incidence of the light makes the eye glow nicely without any need for postprocessing.
No crop, slight tweak in contrast and tone curve, cloning some stray feather bits on the beak and around the place, tiny subtle bit of dodging and burning to bring out a little more texture on the feathers above and below the eye and to dial down the feathers below the beak.
[Jun. 26th, 2012 11:09:34 PM]
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"A wildlife shot with artificial light."
Fabulous work and spot-light as mentioned in my original comment. I voted an 8.
However I contest this is not a wildlife shot. It is a nature image shot under controlled in captivity conditions and I feel very strongly about the distinct difference between the two. I have no problem with zoo or sanctuary images and encourage my photo students to visit them, support them, and practice technique there for the day that that elusive subject appears before them in the real wild. I just make sure they make that distinction if they publish their captivity photos.
Again, a marvellous image and congrats on your HM!
Nothing wrong with photographing birds in captivity. But, the viewer should expect lots of detail on a closeup portrait. I'm not too excited about the all black bg, but it is dramatic. The strength of this image is the eye color and detail. Very nicely done.
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