Once in a Lifetime Image Ruined?

[JimFox]

I was out 2 days ago at the local Nature Area in Northern Colorado, when 4 Bald Eagles started flying and soaring around. It was cloudy as it had just snowed, but the snow was poking a little hole in the clouds. By eye, it was just a brighter area in the clouds it wasn't completely visible. As the Eagles were soaring, I had this thought that it would be so cool if one would fly in front of the bright area in the clouds. And sure enough one did. At the time I couldn't tell how close it was as it was all happening so fast.

Back at my computer looking at the images I found images were the bald eagle was close to the bright sun area, and 1 where it was dead center! That was awesome!

But as I clicked for 100%, I saw that it was slightly blurry. I looked at the other images just prior to that sequence and they were slightly blurry too. Now after that, 2 of the Bald Eagles started soaring together, those are really sharp. So I am not sure what I did wrong. It all happened so fast, you barely have time to think. So I am guessing that I did something wrong, but not sure what it was. The best I can think is that I had it in AF-S instead of AF-C? And maybe it moved enough between photos to be slightly out of focus? I did switch it to AF-C, but I am thinking it must have been afterwards

Nikon Z8
Tamron 50-400mm @362mm
ISO 800
1/32000th sec
f8

This image is almost exactly as it was SOOC. I sharpened it to remove the blur, but I left it dark as I figured all internal features on the eagle would be soft and blurry. So hopefully cleaning up the edges makes it presentable?

If it worked, let me know. If it didn't, that's okay too.

There was similar conditions yesterday, but the Bald Eagles didn't show up.

All comments are welcome,

Jim

 

[AlanLichty]

This does work as a silhouette. If you have it Topaz Sharpen AI might be able to help with its motion blur model. It's getting a bit old with 2 years since its last update but I still reach for it when I want to remove some blur.

Hard to do much shadow recovery with lighting like this. I don't know enough about your Z8 to offer any useful suggestions for what it can do with auto focus on moving subjects. You were certainly shooting at a fast enough shutter speed to minimize camera motion.

The AF section of my manual for my Canon R5M2 is a couple hundred pages including the AI stuff and still consider myself a beginner with that stuff.

 

[murali]

Here are my BIF settings (D7100 + 80-400VR Nikkor):
AF-C
Back Button auto-focus
VR OFF
Shutter Speed: 1/2000 sec
Aperture: f7.1
Auto ISO
Dynamic Area AF with 9 points (I find 9 a bit more reliable than 21)

 

[Alan Milnes]

I think this works Jim. Good on ya. I might play a bit more with the contrast in the clouds/sky but that's my personal preference. Might not be yours. I have been using Topaz Photo AI and have been amazed at what it can do for a soft image.

 

[JimFox]

Here are my BIF settings (D7100 + 80-400VR Nikkor):
AF-C
Back Button auto-focus
VR OFF
Shutter Speed: 1/2000 sec
Aperture: f7.1
Auto ISO
Dynamic Area AF with 9 points (I find 9 a bit more reliable than 21)

Thanks Murali.

That's interesting about the VR off. Maybe my shutterspeed was too fast for the VR.

I am not sure there is a 9 point AF with the change to mirrorless on the Nikons. I need to look at that.

I have tried Back Button Focus, and I know all birders use that. But with 50 years of not using Back Button Focus, I found it very awkward to use the few times I tried it a few years ago. So I will have to think about that.

Is the image a keeper? Or should I delete it?

 

[JimFox]

I think this works Jim. Good on ya. I might play a bit more with the contrast in the clouds/sky but that's my personal preference. Might not be yours. I have been using Topaz Photo AI and have been amazed at what it can do for a soft image.

Thanks Alan! I know it's different.

I actually wa going to add more contrast, but I thought it looked pretty good SOOC and so I left it that way just to show how the camera captured it. But since you mentioned it.i will go back and push it more.

Thanks for the Topaz photo AI recommendation. I don't think I have it. But maybe should look at it.

 

[Beth]

nice, dramatic shot.