Giant Eagle Owl (juvenile)

[Marc Mol]

Sth Luangwa NP- Zambia.
D2Xs 300 f/2.8VR ISO400 f/4 1/250s@300mm & BB flash -1.7EV.

C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

http://africaddict.smugmug.com/photos/476077440_ERGzC-XL.jpg

[massimomossi]

The owl is really nice--love those eyes! But what is it sitting on? Something is really odd about the perch.

Massimo

[Doug Brown]

Looks to me like a tree trunk that's had a Gaussian blur applied to it. I would mask out the perch. I would also darken the BG.

[Marc Mol]

Looks to me like a tree trunk that's had a Gaussian blur applied to it. I would mask out the perch. I would also darken the BG.

Hi Doug
The branch has been cut as it's too close to the track and has had NR applied. I did try to darken the BG, using layer mask by toning down exposure, not too successfully however.
What method would be best in CS3?

Cheers
Marc

[David Thomasson]

I did try to darken the BG, using layer mask by toning down exposure, not too successfully however. What method would be best in CS3?

I used a curves adjustment layer. Pulled it down to almost solid black, then touched in some background illumination with a soft brush at low opacity, and applied lens blur to the background. Also inverted that mask and adjusted levels on the owl to brighten it and bring out its colors a little better. Very nice capture.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1646/owl2qd3.jpg

[Linda Robbins]

Beautiful subject and pose. Good eye contact and nice detail in the bird. David's repost really improved the bg and made the bird pop, but you still need to go back and undo the PS work you did on the perch.