Great Gray Owl Closeup

[Ashleigh Scully]

Hi -

This is from my Wyoming trip this fall. This Great Gray had just swallowed a mouse and I got this really interesting look. I loved the face and thought I would post this.

I can remove the out of focus grasses but since none are really in the way of the face I left them alone. Also I wasn't sure if I should include the whole body, as that may take away from the detail of the face.

Canon 5D MIII
Canon 500mm + 1.4TC

Aperture Priority this time

ISO 800
0.67 EV
f/5.6
1/1000s

I did some sharpening of the face and noise reduction on the background. I also selectively adjusted shadows on the darker side of the bird's face.

Thanks!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Love the low shooting angle and the eye contact. The OOF grass isn't bugging me.
I'd place the bird further to the left in the frame. TFS and keep them coming!

[Holger Leyrer]

Cool. Great eye contact and details.
I agree with Sidharto to place the bird further to the left in the frame

[Jonathan Ashton]

Difficult for me to say include or exclude the rest of the bird, in the presented image you emphasise it's majestic head - which I like, but I wonder , and think it would look pretty darned good if we saw a bit more of it whilst keeping a reasonably tight crop. I like the processing and the angle from which the image was taken - you certainly appear to have the bird's attention!

[Troy Lim]

Composition recommendation is good. I would love to see the oof plant on the left cloned out. It is a bit of a distraction.

[John Robinson]

Concur with the above comments - especially a tighter crop around the head would give more emphasis.
Certainly would be better more central IMHO.
Cheers
JR

[Tom Friedel]

Of course an outstanding image, but a shame that right eye isn´t in the same light giving a more penetrating stare.

[christopher galeski]

Nice capture Ashleigh,love the stare,like Peter's crop.

[keith mitchell]

Hi Ashleigh, apart from the right eye that I think could do with a bit of a lift, I like it as posted with the vegetation giving a very natural look, very nice.

Keith.

[Ashleigh Scully]

HI thanks everyone for the feedback.

I tried a square composition this time giving more room around the bird's head. I also changed shadows and lightened the bird's left eye a little.

I hope this is better.

Thanks again!

[keith mitchell]

Ashleigh I think by just lightening the eye as improved this image he/she certainly fixes you with those eyes. I would be very pleased to have this fine image.

Keith.

[Diane Miller]

Ashleigh, I like your crop here. I don't know exactly what color the bird should be but there is a slight magenta cast here that is fairly common to see here -- maybe some monitors are off toward the green.

I pulled it into PS and did a Curves layer and clicked on the mid-tone eyedropper and clicked several places that I thought should possibly be gray, and got this. Of course, clicking different places will give different color balances. I'm not saying this one is right -- it may be on the greenish side -- but I think the magenta one isn't ideal, either.

I also notice you didn't embed the profile, although it appears to be converted to sRGB, as the color didn't change when I assigned that profile. It's always a good idea to embed a profile -- some older browsers may not assume sRGB and instead display the image with the monitor profile, which would lead to incorrect colors.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Ashleigh and Diane.... your combo reposts are great... Ashleigh... great PP on the eyes, Diane.... agree there was magenta in the image. Congrats, Asheigh, on a fantastic shot.