Florida Burrowing Owls

[Joseph Przybyla]

This one goes way back, I captured the image in February 2013 in Cape Coral, Florida. The owls are peeking out from the burrow in the St. Augustine lawn. I worked on it today, reprocessing it in Lightroom. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 VR AF-S ED HH
1/400 F/8 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 320 Auto WB, image captured at 300mm
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2020 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Randy Stout]

Joe:

Classic Cape Coral shot. Spent a number of happy hours there crawling around with them.

The overlapping pose works very well, good POV, intense stare.

DOF, although good for most shots, can't quite cover them both completely here because of their stacked pose. Both sets of eyes are pretty good, and that really helps.

I might consider toning down the brightness of the foreground a bit.

Cheers

Randy

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, these must be 'distant cousins' of the Little owl as they are almost 'peas in a pod'. I like the one behind the other pose and the OOF FG. Agree with Randy on the HL's and I would also try to get (if possible) a bit more detail in the eyes.

TFS
Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe, these must be 'distant cousins' of the Little owl as they are almost 'peas in a pod'. I like the one behind the other pose and the OOF FG. Agree with Randy on the HL's and I would also try to get (if possible) a bit more detail in the eyes.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, thanks for viewing and commenting. Following Randy's and your suggestion I used the graduated filter in lightroom to slightly burn and lower the highlights on the foreground. I also increased sharpening with the adjustment brush on the eyes. Here's a repost. WDYT?

[Ivan Sjogren]

Nice shot Joe!
The eye contact is perfect and the birds are positioned beautifully. I think you got great details and colors too.
To my eye there aren't that much difference between the original and repost but I think the foreground is fixed nicely.
I like the flowers and the green grass. In a frame that is so tight I think it works without a distant background but I still would have liked some more depth.
Also the dry twig on the right is a bit distracting for me.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe I'm with Ivan, the changes are very subtle.

How about this in LR:

Drop the Exposure overall just a fraction
In the HSL drop the Green in S & up L (darker), reduce the Blue in S too
Add another Graduate for the FG and add perhaps bit of Ex, DH & Cl within that filter

The eyes selectively drop the saturation of the yellow, then have a 'fiddle', as you start to see more detail in the eyes like the Little Owls. It's a little OOT, but hopefully it illustrates what you have hidden in the OP with the eyes. :w3

Cheers
Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe I'm with Ivan, the changes are very subtle.

How about this in LR:

Drop the Exposure overall just a fraction
In the HSL drop the Green in S & up L (darker), reduce the Blue in S too
Add another Graduate for the FG and add perhaps bit of Ex, DH & Cl within that filter

The eyes selectively drop the saturation of the yellow, then have a 'fiddle', as you start to see more detail in the eyes like the Little Owls. It's a little OOT, but hopefully it illustrates what you have hidden in the OP with the eyes. :w3

Cheers
Steve

Thanks Steve, I'll give a go later.

[John Mack]

Nice view of these two. Like those yellow eyes.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, much appreciated.