Front Is Back, Back Is Front...

I captured this Florida Burrowing Owl a while back on a trip south in Florida. These owls have the amazing ability to turn their heads 180 degrees as this image shows, really helpful when checking surroundings for predators. My most grateful thanks to Steve Kaluski for helping me with the exposure and heading me in the right direction. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering 0 EV ISO 400 AWB, camera on an Oben monopod with a tilt head
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition

Hi Joseph, the exposure looks far better now you can clearly see it has given the subject more depth, detail and overall form. I do think a bit more room for the perch would be good, its a little tight at the foot, love the way they just balance on one leg. If you reduce the Blue in the whites of the chest & at the back of the head I think it would rely help, you may have missed that???

and Your perseverance is paying off, nice one.

TFS
Steve

Joe SK has been a big help to me also, I like the one legged stance and the look back pose,great sharp detail and a nice BG,don't think you could ask for more, lovely work.

Keith.

Hi Steve, found it and learned something new. Seems I should have seen that, have to think about why I didn't. Here is the repost.

Joe hope you don't mind me following this thread, you can certainly see the improvement in the repost.

Hi Joe
Still looks good but a little bright for me on my gear ( Got it from a pound shop)
Just a simple drop in gamma a bit would do for me.
John

Quote:

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Originally Posted by keith mitchell

Joe hope you don't mind me following this thread, you can certainly see the improvement in the repost.

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Not at all, I think something like this we all can learn from. Thanks for following keith.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by John Robinson

Hi Joe
Still looks good but a little bright for me on my gear ( Got it from a pound shop)
Just a simple drop in gamma a bit would do for me.
John

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Thanks for viewing and commenting John. Looking at the original and the repost I can see that the repost brightened a bit. Not sure why but your suggestion is well taken, thanks for offering.

Repost looks great. Nice detail. A bit tight in the frame for me.

Nice side view with excellent IQ Joe.

Now that looks much better Joseph, it makes all the difference, keep the hard work up.

An easy trick I use to get rid of bluish cast in shadows (when there is no other blue in the image such as here) is to simply reduce the saturation in the blue and /or cyan channels. Works like a charm. The pose shows how well adapted they are at scanning their environs, but still would have preferred less of a head turn. I miss photographing these guys....

Hi Joe a very cool frame of the Owl , you got good suggestions for improving things and the RP is better than OP for me.
But if this was mine i might keep a tiny bit of the blues in the SH , but barely visible !!The RP does look a bit light and thin to me , but this is just me !!

A cool frame to experiment with various tone /contrast combos .

TFS Andreas

Nice looking owl and a nice looking pose. I think the re-post looks just a bit bright. Maybe somewhere in between. Well done

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, truly appreciated.