Great Gray Owl

[Paul Kammen]

Living "close" I can run up to the Sax Zim Bog for half days at times, and last week was able to see a great gray do some hunting.

I was pleased overall with this image, and have been looking carefully at images taken with the 600 TC VR lens with the TC engaged;
everything I've looked at and seen does not show any loss of detail at 840mm, which is what this was shot at; I own the 800 as well
but will be selling it in a few days. If anyone owns both an 800 and 600 please let me know if it makes any sense to own those,
but on Nikon's side as the 600 has a switch to move it to 840mm 5.6, it seems to make more sense to just have one super tele,
less worry, and it's also slightly brighter.

Thanks for any thoughts, they are fun to watch hunt. The only bummer was a photographer's posterior was in the way who was
much closer to the owl so I could not get him diving to hunt.

Nikon Z9, Nikkor 600 f4 TC VR S, 1/1600, f5.6, ISO 3200

[Colin Driscoll]

Very nice Paul, excellent pose and details. Really good BG too.
Just a question about the conifer color, would it be greener in real life?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Terrific shot well caught. I really like the pose with the head on look. Colin remarked on the fir tree colour, it does look rather muted to me also.

[Paul Kammen]

Very nice Paul, excellent pose and details. Really good BG too.
Just a question about the conifer color, would it be greener in real life?

Hi Colin, perhaps it was the cloudy sky or bland winter landscape, I can try to touchen it up a bit. I may have lowered the saturation on it when adjusting the background, but used a brush for most of what was around it.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Super cool shot , love the eye contact and the take off pose ... well timed shot .
Tones and details look good .
Can't follow your thoughts about the color issue that was mentioned .... by the others , I which I do agree .
Those trees appear green to me in reality , or this is a special one of that area . The needles do look pale and lifeless , more like a rather dirty yellow than a green color . The subject does carry a yellow cast as well ... but your call , you have been there .

Leaving the color aside a terrific shot

TFS

[Paul Kammen]

Hi Andreas,
Here's another one right after the prior photo; I adjusted it a bit more omitting the tree from masks. I think they are a little better in this one.

196265

[Andreas Liedmann]

It might be a minor issue but your embedded color profile is not sRGB , which is recommended for web images . You have Display3 as profile attached to your FILES !!!!!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Paul .... I took the freedom to " correct" the image
WDYT ?

Cheers Andreas

[Jack Backs]

Fabulous image. I do prefer Andreas' color correction.

[Paul Kammen]

Hi Paul .... I took the freedom to " correct" the image
WDYT ?

Cheers Andreas

Hi Andreas, I do like it a lot - may I ask what you did so I can replicate it? Brush the tree?

[Paul Kammen]

Fabulous image. I do prefer Andreas' color correction.

Me too.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Andreas, I do like it a lot - may I ask what you did so I can replicate it? Brush the tree?

Paul it was more than just brushing the tree .

PS : ACR Filter 1. WB global correction 2. Global Color Grading HL / MT / SH . 3. Tree selective Hue shift to green and point color correction to the colors in the tree 4. selective color adjustments in the subject i.e. yellow of eyes , reduced the blues in the plumage . All color changes are made with the help of the eyedropper to see the values !!!!
Hope this helps a bit .... but do not forget to save the file with the right color profile ( sRGB is recommend )
Cheers Andreas