Barred Owl

I captured this image in February 2017 at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED, image captured at 400mm
1/125 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 450 Auto WB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2020 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped for composition and presentation

P.S. Learn more about Circle B Bar Reserve in the BAA Middle Florida Photography Site Guide that Artie and I co-authored. It is available at this link The BAA Middle of Florida Site Guide

Love the way the spanish moss is framing the owl.
I am OK with the highlights in the eyes but I know some would clean them up.
Nice and sharp and well-processed.
I really like the BG colors.Looks like those glass beads we used to hang in the doorway.
Gail

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Originally Posted by gail bisson

Love the way the spanish moss is framing the owl.
I am OK with the highlights in the eyes but I know some would clean them up.
Nice and sharp and well-processed.
I really like the BG colors.Looks like those glass beads we used to hang in the doorway.
Gail

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Hi Gail, thank you for viewing and commenting. I took a look at the eyes without the reflections, they were pretty much just black orbs. The reflections/highlights bring life to the eyes. Thanks again...

Hi Joe, love the framing of this one and I would kill to have a setting for my current owls like this. The BKG is really cool, the muted colours, dappled light just work oh so well.

OK, so on the MBP so crappy screen (knowing you use LR), but based on both 'numbers', and some clipping, just watch your shadows & darks, to me there is a lot more that you can tease out that brings more detail back in too. Now I could be totally wrong and whether it's needs a bit more warmth or go cooler not sure, my concern is getting that detailed back into what you have and have not added any additional sharpening.

The attached is just a thought... :w3 Nice one. :cheers:

TFS
Steve

The setting here is great. Love all that moss framing the bird. The vertical framing was a good call. Nice and sharp with nice detail.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski

Hi Joe, love the framing of this one and I would kill to have a setting for my current owls like this. The BKG is really cool, the muted colours, dappled light just work oh so well.

OK, so on the MBP so crappy screen (knowing you use LR), but based on both 'numbers', and some clipping, just watch your shadows & darks, to me there is a lot more that you can tease out that brings more detail back in too. Now I could be totally wrong and whether it's needs a bit more warmth or go cooler not sure, my concern is getting that detailed back into what you have and have not added any additional sharpening.

The attached is just a thought... :w3 Nice one. :cheers:

TFS
Steve

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Hi Steve, thanks for viewing and your suggestions. I had a go at the image again keeping in mind your suggestions. Here is a repost. WDYT?

P.S. Regarding the white balance, the bird was in the shade, the white feather patches on the left side were tinted a bluish white so I had reduced the blue saturation in the original as posted. I tried setting the white balance with the eyedropper a couple of times but the image went way too warm, just didn't look right so then I reduced the blue saturation so the feathers on the left side would be white.

Joe, I’ll drop a line later, just off for my exercise of the day to check on my owls, talk later.

Cheers
steve

Really love the framing with spanish moss and I love the eyes as they are. Perfect curious stare as well. TFS

Last repost looks good to me. A terrific Owl Photo.

Like the first image. The eyes look very natural. There is sometimes to much edeting applied to an image. So, just keep the first one. Whole frame is great.

Hi Joe, yep, going in the right direction, you can start to see the detail you originally capture, but hidden in the clipping of the OP. :cheers:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski

Hi Joe, yep, going in the right direction, you can start to see the detail you originally capture, but hidden in the clipping of the OP. :cheers:

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Hi Steve... Good lesson, working on the image I could see the hidden detail especially on the tree trunk. The detail was hiding in the darker shadows, opening the shadows and cutting back on the black brought it out.

Excellent, I’m so pleased Joe, as folk make PP hard, it’s not, just make sure you work to ETTR on your raw capture, it makes the world of difference. :cheers:

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, much appreciated.