Sharp-eyed sibs take in their world...

[David Roach]

EOS R RF 70-200 @200 F4 1/400 ISO 1600 HH, Manual exp, large crop

Tried (operative word here) to incorporate Steven's sharpening advice. No contrast added as this Rf zoom produces great contrast in the raw image, minimum sharpening for web presentation. I'm at f4 to get both in DOF and not bring in the surroundings too much. They are standing in the entrance to the burrow. It is very unusual in my experience to have these owls nest under the large roots of any big tree. They mostly love open fields for threat detection.

Thanks for valued previous help and comments. Please, keep them coming.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi David, thanks for the file.

OK, firstly a bit of Housekeeping, why cRaw & not just straight Raw, Servo AF is this the same as AI Servo AF? I would try, changing -1 to 1 and 1 to 0 in your set up. Picture style unless you are using DPP set to Neutral and all other settings to either zero or minus. If the subject is static why are you using High speed continuous, I know but this is where folk just machine gun stuff and file their cards fill with lots of the same. :bg3: With the MK3 and the best card out ever, just a few taps and you are done.


To the image, learn to shoot the way you wish to portray the final image, you will have more data, better IQ, why make 6720H > 4480px high, think of all that data you have just thrown away. Personally I think the way you shot is the better option, once you have the shot in the bag, then change format, zoom in, zoom out, shoot portrait, higher, lower then when you are back home you have more to look at, not all the same and perhaps there is one you never thought of is the best of the bunch. Not being there it's hard to ascertain the WB, but going by the numbers the Temp is 5100, Tint +22, however there is quite a presence of yellow, I did drop the exp -0.15 and address the Black & Contrast, plus some Clarity and Dehaze, this was positive rather than negative, just depends on the file. The image is sharp, almost too sharp, but... You shot at f/4 which I assume is around f/7.1, perhaps shooting again at f/2.8 (f/4) may have just compressed the BKG even more??? The tree is a bit dominant and moving position may again have offered a better option??? I did tweak the Greens and FG slightly to add some 'layering', again, personal choice. I did apply a little NR via LR then cropped and Exported via LR, job done.

The RP is basically encompassing the above, hone - burning/dodging particular areas on the subjects is not critical for this exercise.

Hope this helps David.

TFS
Steve

[John Mack]

Much prefer the original on this one. I like those eyes those. The low angle is right on.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi David, love the owls, the Florida Burrowing Owls are my favorite. I see from Steve's repost that the image cropped a bit. Love the eyes, the one on the right appears like it is almost getting the black eyes some have that is believed to be a genetic problem from a small population. My thought on opening the image was that if you could have moved to the left maybe you could have avoided the tree in the background. Colors and detail on the owls look good, as a disciple of Steve I might have lowered the black and contrast a bit. both can hide fine detail. Thank you for sharing.