Dull day Short eared owl

[Ivan Ellison]

With so many bright pics on here, thought I would throw one in from grey old England. Managed a few shots of the shorties and barnies today but would dearly love some light on them- sounds like I moan a lot.
50% crop to off centre it . Brightened the whole pic and then selective sharpening and shadow / highlight to the bird. Ran the blur tool over the bg to soften it and reduce noise.
Canon 1D mkIV.
Canon 500 f4 is (mk 1) + 1.4 conv
ISO 1000
1/800
f5.6

[Nick Palmieri]

Really nice flight capture. I like the backlit wings. I think the maybe the eye could be a tad brighter. I think if it were mine I would crop a bit off the right side...either way really nice job!

[gail bisson]

Your PP is excellent but I would brighten the owl even more.
I would love to see the original to see how dark it really was!
I like the wing position and nice and sharp.
Would take a bit off the right.
Gail

[dankearl]

I would like to have this one in my files.
I like the soft light, although I can see that you brought it up quite a bit in post.
Still, very nice and I like the backlighting.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Ivan I moan about the light too! You have done remarkably well to get this image in such low light, I would maybe consider either moving the owl slightly to the right or cropping a little off the right.
I am hoping to get shorties soon and I also have a barn owl patrolling locally but oh, give me the light!