Bald Eagle Close-Up Shots

[EagleMkIII]

I saw this eagle today, and gave the mirror lockup a try on the Canon 5D. Shot with a 100-400mm at:

350mm
F8
ISO 160
1/1600 second
autofocus
stabilizer off
white balance set for cloudy

These have been cropped in pretty far:

 

[dudley_53]

Lovely

 

[MSnowy]

Nice set.

 

[KmH]

View attachment 42792

A quick edit, so there is a bit of haloing and JPEG artifacts.
I corrected white balance using ACR 6's White Balance tool on the eagle's tail feathers.
Global capture sharpened (ACR Sharpening panel)) - Amount 25, Radius 1, Detail 24, Masking 0.
In Photoshop I used the Quick Selection tool and Refine Edge feature to select the bird and branches. I saved the selection.
I copied the background layer (Ctrl-J) and selected the Inverse of the saved selection so everything EXCEPT the bird/branches was selected.
I added a Neutral Density to Transparent Gradient using the Gradient tool to the copied background layer (Layer 1).
I copied layer 1 (Ctrl-J, new layer is Layer 2) I retrieved the bird/branches selection and increased the mid-tone contrast with a Curves adjustment layer.
I copied layer 2 (Ctrl-J, new layer is Layer 3) I retrieved the bird/branches selection and used my Topaz Adjust plug-in's Clarity preset.
I increased the Image Size from 2" to 4" using the Bicubic Sharper Resample algorithm and added a thin black border.