Great Horned Owl (c)

[Bill Dix]

Another from the Sonora Desert Museum, in 2015. Free-flying but trained bird, part of their raptor flight show. Full-frame (added sliver of canvas below, from another frame). Too bad about the displaced feathers, but a great looking beast otherwise.
D7000, 500f4, ISO 2000, 1.2000s @ f.7.1 manual.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very nice indeed lovely details, I like as is, as an option you could pull the mid tones down just a fraction.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

A beautiful and amazing looking Owl. Nice composition and detail. Though a trained bird, they still make such terrific subjects for photography.

[gail bisson]

Lovely bird.
Good perch and pose.
I find the image a bit washed out and would punch it up with curves or levels or blacks in selective color.
The 2 stems sticking out from behind the head should bug me but for some reason I am OK with them. Too bad you could not have moved to your left to get rid of them.
You made the most of a good opportunity,
Gail

[John Mack]

Nice view of this owl. Framing is right on. Always a treat to photograph an owl.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Nicely captured, Bill. Like the pose with head turned, and beautiful soft light.


Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Bill, super capture, albeit captive. Love the look back pose, really shows off the best side of an owl.

I might be off, but the look appears to carry quite a bit of magenta which is affecting both the more neutral BKG & plumage. Agree with Jon on using a mid tone curves, this will avoid the heavy clipping other adjustments carry, in doing so it pulls a lot more detail and layering of that fantastic plumage out the you have captured. It has also pulled a bit more of the original sharpening out too. I think also looking the two branches behind the head reduces the distraction, an easy fix.

Bill I can only work on the numbers, but hope this helps, albeit currently away, still a lovely capture IMHO.

TFS
Steve

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for your insights. I agree about the mid-tone corrections. Steve, your RP definitely gives it some more pop. Looking at that, I also agree that the OP has a hinta magenta. To my eye your RP seems a bit too yellow, but not much. When I get a few minutes I'll give it another go. It is also true that evicting the green stems takes away a distraction. Thanks for taking the time.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Bill, I agree on the ‘yellow’ and not knowing the species it’s hard to judge, but even so, it can be reduced further.

Hope to see a revise when you have time. :S3:

[Brian Sump]

Bill, great look at GHO here. Nice.

Steve's repost does make a nice improvement and appreciate the clones on the stalks as well. Yellow a bit, yeah perhaps a touch.

Otherwise, great quarter-dorsal view and a nice stare just off from the lens. TFS.

[Bill Dix]

Here's another go at it. I'm still not sure of the color; a bit different from Steve's RP, maybe more red less yellow? When I Save for Web and convert to sRGB for posting, it seems to make a noticeable red shift, and changes further when I post to BPN. Hard to know what's right. Anyway, thank you all again for the comments.

[Steve Kaluski]

I like it Bill, worth the investment in time IMHO. :cheers:


When I Save for Web and convert to sRGB for posting, it seems to make a noticeable red shift, and changes further when I post to BPN

Bill, at the top of the Convert to Profile window in Source space does the Profile say ProPhoto or Adobe RGB?

Underneath, where it says Destination space, what does it say, sRGB...

It should look like this, albeit I use ProPhoto instead of Adobe.

[Bill Dix]

Steve, the window in my old version of PS doesn't look like yours. I use the File/Save for Web and Devices, and within that window I have checked the box that says "Convert to sRGB". I thought I was always working on my TIFF files in Adobe RGB, but when I opened the Color Settings in PS for this image, I found it set to the sRGB Working Space. Not what I wanted or thought I was using; I don't know how long ago it was changed to that setting inadvertently. Curiously, when I open the Print dialog, it says the image profile is Nikon Adobe RGB. So it makes me wonder what I am looking at on my screen when I work on a TIFF file.

[Steve Kaluski]

Bill, a touch of deja vu, as I'm current trying to work out similar issues with another member who is also using CS6, the issue I have is trying to go back that far and the workflow.

Occasionally when PS updates, or you have to do a clean install, all presets you have done are lost, but I guess with CS6, no fear of upgrades. :w3 Are you working with Nikon as the convertor of raw or PS? I think it's best to walk through your process from Camera, to Raw convertor, to PS, to output and ensure at each stage Adobe RGB is the same language each stage is talking in, until output which as you say would be sRGB.

Bill if I can help, drop me a line via PM rather than clogging the thread, but we may need to exchange email, because PM do not allow attachments and it easy to check when you have visual content to check against. As I mentioned to Brian, check also the top menu bar Image > Mode > check Adobe RGB is checked and 16 Bit/channel, not 8.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Steve. Good idea. Next image I work on I'll check at each step along the way.

[Steve Kaluski]

Sent a PM Bill, hope it makes sense and you get it sorted. At least you spotted it now.