Barred Owl in Flight

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi -

From my trip with Jim Neiger this spring.

Canon 7d, Canon 100-400mm lens.
Manual Exposure: ISO 400, 1/800, f/6.3, 120mm

For this shot, I wanted to include more of the environment, which is why I chose this focal length. The owl is soft probably because my shutter speed wasn't fast enough, but on the down stroke you can get away with this I think. There's alot of green in the background, which I tried to tone down a bit. Also some selective sharpening of the owl's face only. Cropped about 10% off of the right side. A call was used during this series. Interested in your comments and suggestions.

Thank you

[Don Railton]

Hello Ashley

I think you have included enough of the surround to place the bird in its environment... Good that you are thinking before you execution. I agree a higher shutter speed would have helped and while i am not a 7D user i think you could have pushed the ISO to 800 at least to achieve this. The full downstroke position does hide a lot of the bird, especially side on as you are, on the up side you get a good view of the primaries.. I think I might have preferred the full upswept position to open up the view of the bird more but this is pretty cool also..

well done.

DON

[dankearl]

Ashleigh,
The sharpness is fine for a small bird in the frame photo.
I would still crop a bit tighter (maybe 20%), the IQ should still be fine.
Your comp is good, crop so the Owl is still in the upper left corner.
Run another round of NR on the BG to smooth it out and see how it looks.

[Loi Nguyen]

Ashley, the bird looks sharp to me at this size and pops against the green. It's a nice environment shot, but its hard to show a lone owl small in the frame (I think this kind of a shot is best with more than one bird). You handled the focus well as the focus is actually harder with the bird so small in the frame. At 120mm, I'd suggest open up your aperture to gain shutter speed and pushing the ISO up (but then you would need to work with layers and apply NR selectively). Well done. Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

Hey Ashleigh,

Great shot! you captured a beautiful wing position. It is great to include some of the background and enviroment. It is sometimes a trade off, when you use a short lens or zoom out the background becomes more in focus and it makes it hard to separate the owl from the background and have a smooth background but it shows the habitat better, you have to find the best balance. Here I would stick with 400mm because the owl becomes a bit too small in the frame and it will be hard for us to see his eyes!

You are right that your shutter speed was a bit low you can increase your ISO to get faster shutter speed but not too much because it will become grainy.

good work

[Marina Scarr]

Very pleased to see you going for and posting a small bird in the frame capture! Arash gave you a very fine critique and good advise above. Your owl pops well against the green environment. I agree about cropping a tad and rendering your owl larger in the frame...something like this. You are still showcasing all of the environment but including a little less of it to help focus on your subject.

[gail bisson]

Well done Ashleigh.
Good advice about SS.
Composition is a combination of "rules" and personal taste. I would go for something between your post and Marina's. It is your shot though, so go with what pleases your eye best.
I would read up on composition and go to art galleries and look at paintings to see what works and what doesn't and try to figure out WHY it works or doesn't work.
I still struggle with composition after all these years...
Gail