Barred Owl

[Matt Lerer]

Not being very good at photoshop this one has be a bit troubled. There was a blue bird sky and no matter what I do with the sky it doesn't look great color wise...to me anyway. I took the shot around 4:00 in the afternoon. I selected the sky and used some noise reduction then inversed the selection and sharpened the subject. Not sure if there is a bit of a halo around anything as I am convincing myself there is for some reason. Additionally I am struggling with this being either a horizontal or vertical. I need all the help I can get with these so all comments and help is welcome!

Thanks!http://photos.imageevent.com/ghireptiles/nature/Barred%20vertical.jpg

20D
300mm
1/2000th
f6.3

[Glenda Simmons]

Matt, I understand the feeling of being on the low end of the totem pole with photoshop, as I know very little...but making progress reading Artie's CD. So I'm not sure how well my comments will help...but here goes: The sky looks fine to me and I think the face of your owl is sharp and shows a nice behavioral expression. I think the perch is distracting. I think the image would look better with the perch clonned out and just having an in flight shot of the owl. Rather this large an area can be removed, easily...that I do not know. Overall, I like your image and would love to have a chance at photographing one of these owls.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Pretty cool pose and the image has great potential. I would also clone out the perch, the sky looks good but you could desaturate it a few points. I would run NR on the BG and if you apply curves in ACR or whatever RAW converter you use, the S/H halo won't be there. You could sharpen the face some more, go for a vertical crop and put the bird a bit lower in the frame.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I am not a clone fan really, but I agree it should go in this instance. That perch is just sort of in the way. You could quick mask it pretty easily and I had no idea of that tool and method until recently when a wonderful friend has shared some great tips and for that I am forever grateful. :)

Awesome pose indeed! :) Probably a touch more space around, but vertical for me too! :)

[Jon Thornton]

That perch has got to go! The thing I like least about it is the fact that it overlaps with the bird.

Do you like the blurred wingtips? I'm in two minds about them myself. I reckon they need to be either more blurred or tack sharp.

I do however, really like the wing and head positions. Well done.

[Matt Lerer]

I was actually surprised the tips were blurred on these guys because of the speed the shots were taken. Thanks for the help and comments!