Tropical Screech Owl

[Tom Friedel]

I've done a lot of tropical bird photography, but not much at night. This bird posed for me three nights in a row, so I had plenty of time to practice. I tried with both a flashlight and a flash, and this photo was taken with a flash. The eyes were only slightly red, and I desaturated and darkened them a bit. Since then I've photographed one other owl and a greater distance, but that shot was completely red-eyed with the orange iris very dark. Perhaps because this bird was close the eye came out better.
I am not sure how the histogram of a a night shot should look. I used the photoshop contrast tool to add 20 contrast and about 5 brightness, and sharpened a bit. However it looks almost the same as shot. Other experiments with curves and shadows/hightlights didn't look good to me.
5D Mark III Manual 420mm f/4 ISO 800 1/500 EC 0
THanks for any thoughts.

[Binu John]

Excellent shot! I would do a vertical crop and see how it looks! I would also desaturate the eyes further! But I like the OP too..Well done!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great owl, and how nice of it to pose for you for all that time. The exposure looks good and I like the body and head angles of the subject. Perch looks good, other scraggly sticks in the BG not so much. There is still some red in the eyes to eliminate, and I'm wondering if the top of the head can go a tad lighter?