Juvenile Eastern Screech Owl (Gray Morph)

[Anthony Barsotti]

For the past two months I've been spending the majority of my time trying (and usually failing) to get clean shots of a family of Eastern Screech Owls. The other night I got my best opportunity so far with this one and a sibling coming out just after sunset and sitting fairly still for a minute or two. Shot with my Canon R5 and 600mm f/4 L IS II, locked down on my tripod using electronic first-curtain shutter and a cable release to reduce vibration. Settings were 1/5sec f/4 ISO 1600 which was fairly underexposed but I was able to lift the exposure on the owl and the perch a bit without introducing much noise, then I ran it through Denoise AI and applied several curves, color balance, and brightness/contrast adjustment layers throughout in PS.

These are some of the most difficult shots I've tried to get but they're even trickier to edit, I always end up with color casts in certain areas and since these guys are generally sitting under the canopy after dark, exposing for them makes the background much brighter and almost seem like daytime. The more I've worked with them the more I think I've gotten the edits to feel like night time or dusk but I'd love to hear what you all think or how you might approach shots like these. Thanks for looking!

[Wayne Niz]

Lovely detail in the eyes, great picture well done. Lots of effort gone into this and great result Anthony

[David Roach]

The time invested and the techniques certainly were worth the effort. An awesome canvas from low light environment. Love the canopy catchlight. TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Super-sharp along with a great job of post processing. The centered image design bugged me so I tried a crop and while in PS, eliminated a bit of the remaining color cast on the lower breast and belly. with love, artie

[Anthony Barsotti]

Super-sharp along with a great job of post processing. The centered image design bugged me so I tried a crop and while in PS, eliminated a bit of the remaining color cast on the lower breast and belly. with love, artie

Thanks Artie! After working on these edits for a while it’s hard to pick up on the remaining color casts, appreciate your help!

[Brian Sump]

Anthony, loved the read and great persistence to get this capture. It may seem like it goes unappreciated but those of us who work hard on our field craft give you props! Not to leave behind your PP efforts which were well rewarded.

Considering everything this turned out really nice. I am okay with it as posted as you shifted the subject left from center but also like Arties RP as an alternative.

The eye contact is superb and I'm good with your final WB landing spot for the most part, although I believe it could benefit from a few points of warmth.

Have you toyed with running your DN layer above an original layer, both with the subject masked and then brush down with the black pen to reveal some of the organic textures in the bird? This one could be a great candidate to remove a bit more noise on the subject but then brush some back in to find a happy medium.

Great job from me!

[arash_hazeghi]

handsome looking owl, love that stare. you got lucky it came out descent at 1/5 sec, there is some noise on the plumage and some green cast thanks to the light bouncing off from the canopy but a neat shot regardless...I just wish the bright OOF blubs in the BG weren't there and the 2nd OOF branch is a bit distracting IMO

TFS

[Anthony Barsotti]

handsome looking owl, love that stare. you got lucky it came out descent at 1/5 sec, there is some noise on the plumage and some green cast thanks to the light bouncing off from the canopy but a neat shot regardless...I just wish the bright OOF blubs in the BG weren't there and the 2nd OOF branch is a bit distracting IMO

TFS

Thanks Arash! It’s funny, after shooting Screech Owls like this over the past few years 1/5sec sounds fast to me, usually I’m looking at 1/2sec or longer. Surprisingly I’ve had tack sharp shots come out at like 3sec, you just have to get lucky and hope the owl doesn’t look away during the exposure, it’s incredible how still they can be. I agree though about that back branch, wish I would have gotten a bit lower but I think that would have put some twigs in the top of the frame so it is what it is. Getting any type of clean shot of these guys has been the hardest part, they love burying themselves inside twigs and branches.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Anthony, you did well on the SS and good call on using a cable release, but why don't you just up the ISO???? If you use ETTR and check the histogram to get the right exposure, noise is not an issue. If these are like our Owls, that are not fast movers unless flying, I would think you could have rattled off a few images to get the right exposure.

Overall I think you can open up the image, however I do appreciate it's shot in low light, but I'm guessing you used LR for processing, however I could be wrong. Definitely taking the image off centre works and those eyes are to die for, gorgeous.

Just my take on opening up the image to bring more detail out.

TFS
Steve

[Anthony Barsotti]

Hi Anthony, you did well on the SS and good call on using a cable release, but why don't you just up the ISO???? If you use ETTR and check the histogram to get the right exposure, noise is not an issue. If these are like our Owls, that are not fast movers unless flying, I would think you could have rattled off a few images to get the right exposure.

Overall I think you can open up the image, however I do appreciate it's shot in low light, but I'm guessing you used LR for processing, however I could be wrong. Definitely taking the image off centre works and those eyes are to die for, gorgeous.

Just my take on opening up the image to bring more detail out.

TFS
Steve

Thanks Steve! I definitely should have upped the ISO, this one was actually pretty underexposed, I didn't realize until after a few shots when I did increase it but all of those had motion blur or a different head angle so I worked with this one. I generally do ETTR with them to reduce noise but it's tricky with the lighting where they're at, the background is usually around 2 stops brighter than the owl so I have to be careful not to over-expose too much to prevent clipping any highlights in the background. This generally means the bird is going to be slightly underexposed but sticking to ISO's 3200 and below usually gives me enough latitude to boost the exposure on the bird in post without introducing much noise. I used ACR to process it so yeah more or less LR, in the past I've edited them closer to how you have it here but it just always felt like I was looking at a photo shot in daytime versus one at dusk. Definitely still trying to find that balance though, really appreciate your insight and edit!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Anthony, in situations like this I would always expose for the subject and worry about the BKG in PP. Clipping, well I bet you were easily 2/3rds of a stop under even with some clipping and depending on what it is, then you might just let it go. If you lifted the subject in PP, (lightening it) then you will bring up more noise in the shadows, it's better to have an image slightly brighter/lighter and drop the exposure in PP.


I've edited them closer to how you have it here but it just always felt like I was looking at a photo shot in daytime versus one at dusk.

In which case you are on a better 'wicket' because you can then 'sculpt' the light accordingly with layers and masks and can control the light far more and without the worry of introducing noise.

If you are happy with ETTR and check the Histogram, then just have faith in pushing the ISO, even at 8, 10 & 12.8k ISO you can still get useable images. Just explore and push the kit, you have nothing to loose, only space on a card and you might surprise yourself and us, with an awesome image at a higher ISO and more SS and a tad more DoF.

Good luck and keep them coming.

[Jay Ing]

Gotta love those eyes! TFS.

[John Mack]

Nice the owl gave you the stare down.