photoartflightBald Eagle On Snag At Sunrise
This is a double header. A Bald Eagle early in the morning, Plus a colorful Sunrise! This combines a couple of the reasons I enjoy photographing at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge outside of Cambridge, Maryland. Shot with a Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens with a Canon 1.4X teleconverter. The Eagle was backlit, so I exposed for the sky, then opened up the shadows in Adobe Camera Raw.
photoartflight 
The first words that popped into my head were “bird on a stick.”
I, too, often lighten the shadows in Adobe Camera Raw. One downside is that lightening the shadows can result in noticeable grain.
I agree, but you can control a little in Camera Raw, but not too much. I then use the old NIK software, the Dfine plugin to reduce it even more. Trouble is it does not integrate well in the CC2017 Photoshop. I fiddled quite a bit and got it to work which comes in handy. Goggle bought Nik Software years ago and gave it away for free, but never did anything to update it for the CC Photoshops. I heard someone else bought it recently and will bring it back soon which will be nice.