![\"bald](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bald-eagle-4611-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSoft, warm light can\u00a0have\u00a0huge and usually positive\u00a0effects\u00a0on an image.<\/p>\n
With birds it’s an effect that can be\u00a0challenging to\u00a0illustrate because\u00a0they typically move around so much that it’s difficult to get photos of the same bird in the same place over large spans of time for comparison. After all, the best illustration of the effect would have only one variable- the time of day the images were taken. But yesterday morning at Bear River MBR this\u00a0Bald\u00a0Eagle gave me that opportunity.<\/p>\n
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1\/1250, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I first photographed the eagle on my way into the refuge just after sunrise at 8:16 AM. I love the warm\u00a0light at that time of morning and in this image I also\u00a0enjoy the multi-layered background. I wasn’t as close as I’d have preferred (the image is cropped to roughly 50% of the original) but I was about the right distance from the eagle for take-off shots so I stuck with the bird for a while. When it didn’t cooperate for flight shots I eventually moved on in pursuit of other birds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n After a mostly unsuccessful tour of the loop road I left the refuge for destinations further north and was surprised to find the eagle still on the same post and in the same position, almost like it had been nailed to the perch. This image was taken at 9:28 AM, an hour and 12 minutes after the previous shot. The difference in light quality in that amount of time\u00a0is dramatic. I was disappointed with what I saw through my viewfinder so I only took a couple of shots of the bird and none of them were\u00a0very sharp but sharpness plays no significant part in the comparison of light between the two photos.<\/p>\n When I scroll back and forth between the two images I’m almost astounded at the differences between them (I made no tonal\/color adjustments to either image during processing). Both were taken from approximately the same place on the road and the same distance from the bird. Like most everything else in an image light quality can be a matter of\u00a0taste but there’s no question that I vastly prefer the first image and the primary reason for that is its light quality. In certain instances light can be too warm but for me that’s an unusual occurrence.<\/p>\n I’ve often said that I prefer to shoot early in the morning. Birds tend to be most active then, there are usually\u00a0fewer other folks in the field to deal with, it’s much easier to get catch lights in the eyes of your subjects with the sun low in the sky, many birds tend to be “stickier” when it’s coldest during winter\u00a0and I’m an early bird by nature anyway.<\/p>\n But warm, soft light is near the top of\u00a0my list.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Soft, warm light can have huge and usually positive effects on an image.<\/p>\n![\"bald](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bald-eagle-4698-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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