Summer evening Great Gray Owl at Sax Zim Bog

[Michael Thompson]

I saw my first summer Great Gray sunday, I captured this one right near sunset, when there was still a little golden light left. I was lucky he gave me eye contact for one frame only, then looked down, then pounced on some prey in the tall grass below. I captured the jump shot too, but was unprepared with my lower iso and shutter speed, too much motion blur for me. Canon 7D ll, 100-400ll at 400mm f7.1, 1/125ss, 640 iso, manfrotto monopod, light room

[John Whaley]

Wonderful contact with those beautiful eyes. Looks tack sharp with nice soft light. Well done.

[Bill Dix]

Fabulous eye contact. Amazing how such a large looking bird can perch on such small stuff.

[gail bisson]

WOW! Love the look, the light and the tiny little branch he is perched on.
I would take a bit off the RHS of the frame and would add a catchlight to the birds left eye
Gail

[William Dickson]

Lovely looking frame. The bird looks well detailed and sits nicely on the perch. BG shows the habitat well.

Very nice.

Will

[Alex Becker]

Gorgeous light, great pose and perch and very nice details. Agree with Gail on the PP details. Well captured and TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Michael, I trust this is with the 'tweaked' camera settings?

A nice capture and the saturation conveys the late evening light nicely. My only concern even with the mono pod is at 1/125 how sharp the RAW actually is, as you need a greater control at those speeds. You had plenty of scope to gain some extra SS, especially with that lens, so don't be afraid to up the ISO, any noise can easily be addressed in PP and if the exposure is good, you should be fine.

TFS
Steve

[Michael Thompson]

Hi Michael, I trust this is with the 'tweaked' camera settings?

A nice capture and the saturation conveys the late evening light nicely. My only concern even with the mono pod is at 1/125 how sharp the RAW actually is, as you need a greater control at those speeds. You had plenty of scope to gain some extra SS, especially with that lens, so don't be afraid to up the ISO, any noise can easily be addressed in PP and if the exposure is good, you should be fine.

TFS
Steve



Steve, yes it is, thanks! How high would you go on the 7D ll for iso? This raw frame was sharp, but in any where the bird had movement, I could see blur. The sun had just hit the trees, and the owl perched on the little spruce, the only setting I could change quickly was the speed, I would have had to look down to adjust iso, need more practise. my friend was using auto iso and got more acation shots, but he is shooting with a Nikon D4

MT

[Steve Kaluski]

This raw frame was sharp

Are you viewing at 100% and is it 'that sharp'?


This raw frame was sharp

Micheal perhaps I'm not the best person to ask this because many know that I have a dislike for this camera, unless in the hands of Daniel C :bg3: Why, because looking at the files it is not a forgiving body, to me you really have to 'nail' the exposure. It also has had 'sharpness/focusing' issues I think too, or in the early stages. How far would I go, depends on the conditions, the greater the ISO to a degree, you start loosing detail/IQ so it's a balancing act IMHO. If I should HH at 1/125 then I change my whole way of shooting, often wedging into corners, trees, car seats to provide additional support plus controlled breathing etc, because you want to limit all movement, it's like firing off a round to me. I would personally sacrifice a slightly 'noisy' image and it being sharp than a soft image which is for the bin.

[Michael Thompson]

Are you viewing at 100% and is it 'that sharp'?



Micheal perhaps I'm not the best person to ask this because many know that I have a dislike for this camera, unless in the hands of Daniel C :bg3: Why, because looking at the files it is not a forgiving body, to me you really have to 'nail' the exposure. It also has had 'sharpness/focusing' issues I think too, or in the early stages. How far would I go, depends on the conditions, the greater the ISO to a degree, you start loosing detail/IQ so it's a balancing act IMHO. If I should HH at 1/125 then I change my whole way of shooting, often wedging into corners, trees, car seats to provide additional support plus controlled breathing etc, because you want to limit all movement, it's like firing off a round to me. I would personally sacrifice a slightly 'noisy' image and it being sharp than a soft image which is for the bin.

Hi Steve, honestly, I don't know how to tell for sure if it is "that sharp". it is about as sharp as it gets for me now with my equipment and skills, sharp enough for a good sized print. I agree with you about the camera body, if it was in my budget, I would be considering an upgrade, but it is just not an option right now. Getting the new canon 100-400 lens last year really helped me get more keepers though. the image stabilization is amazing too!

[Steve Kaluski]

Yep, fully appreciate things Micheal, just try to keep a high 'ish' SS without too high an ISO, but if need be push it, you have nothing to loose, but just get that Histogram right, in doing so you should have more keepers and less PP if the Exposure is right.

[Arthur Morris]

My, what a big tree you are sitting in! With love, artie