Little owl close up

[John Robinson]

Little owl Adult
Not sure if this is the male or female (I think male as the female was much more nervous )
Its about the last one I took this year of the family . You can see a great shot of the hide and the sun in the eyes. Light from left -hence the smaller pupil.
I'd taken so many I had time to play around with the 50-500 mm. Not as sharp as I would have liked but then my old army tripod isn't that good.
It was a case of putting my foot out the bottom of the hide to get the bird to look at me. Coughing did no good at all. Looking at many forums I reckon Little owls are the most photographed birds this year.
Nikon D7100 in DX mode
Sigma 50-500mm ( on about 400)
ISO 500 640th @f8 Sharpness and contrast down 1 in camera.
About 70% of frame.
Neat image and CZM for high pass filter.
Thanks for looking and comments on my last pic.
Cheers
JR

[Bob Pelkey]

Nice up close view of the owl. Too bad your blind, or other unnatural structure is reflected in its eyes. Had you considered reducing the overwhelming green hue?

[Henry Domke]

I like this but I agree with Bob on the Green cast. It also seemed a bit dark. I did a 20-second reworking of it. What do you think?

[John Robinson]

Thanks both
Sorry but the repost looks too hard to me. Thats why I had the cameara settings as stated.
I held back on the contrast because of all the comments recently about "OVER BRIGHT " owl eyes
Maybe there is a colour cast but I can't see it and after asking 7 other viewers only one could see one so its all down to monitors. I am slightly colourblind (ARMY )so there you are
The bird was s surrounded by green bushes and background so may be thats it. Does it really mattetr that much ???
JR

[Marina Scarr]

Well done on feather details here and I like the green BG. Casts are very difficult for many photographers to detect. There is a pretty heavy green cast to your OP. Pull this image into PS as is. Do a Color Balance adjustment layer and pull the slider 10 points away from the green and toward the magenta. When you toggle between the two you will see the difference. The easiest way to see a cast is usually to look at the whites. Are they actually white or is there a hue of some sort to them.

[John Robinson]

Marina
Yes I dont have PS but there is the same tool in PSP. I must admit I colour dropeer checked the whites on the op and they seemed near enough to me. An artist once told me there is no such thing as white - it always has some other colour refected in it - no matter how minute.(Like the green in a snow drop ) I can see the difference but that is after the event. I would never have noticed it otherwise so its my sight problem. I just assume some green from the surrounding bushes etc has got in- I don't think there's a "green" time of day is there ?? Its disturbing as I will be messing around with everything I post now and thats when the problems start
Thanks anyway.
JR

[Jonathan Ashton]

A fine shot John, lovely detail and angle. I too, see the yellow cast, an alternative method to check the cast is using Average Blur - doesn't always work but when it does it is good.
When checking with other monitors you will need the reassurance that they are correctly calibrated -( apples and pears), also as you indicate an individual's colour acuity is indeed and individual's.