Snowy Owl in Early Morning light

[Loi Nguyen]

I have to admit I can't have enough images of snowy owls! Taken at pre-dawn in Ottawa with Daniel. The sun was about to rise and gave a glorious pre-dawn pink sky.

1DX
70-200f2.8 II + 1.4X III @ 280mm
!/2000
f5.6
ISO-3200
Handheld
Shot horizontal, cropped for vertical, 33% of FF
Owl was baited

I wanted to capture the sky, so set my exposure to not clip the highlights. Would like to hear your feedback whether I should have expose for the owl instead.

Thank you

Loi

[Randy Stout]

Loi:

The sunrise works well. It would be very easy to bring up the owl a bit with the shadow slider, while maintaing the sky, so a think your choice on original exposure was fine.

Even with the wings up pose, the crop is a bit tight for my personal tastes, perhaps the smallest sliver added on each side.

Cheers

Randy

[dankearl]

Nice soft light, I would remove the greenish cast on the Owl.
I like the crop….

[Bill Dix]

Great pose, and I like the crop. I think you could take the green out of the owl without hurting the effect of the lovely morning light.

[gail bisson]

Very nice Loi.
I really like the wings up position.The feet down and direct stare really add to the image.
I wonder if you could selectively increase the saturation in the sky only to enhance the pink. On my monitor the color of the sky is a peach color, not a pink. If it is my monitor then please disregard this remark.
I also see a green ? cyan cast on the snow and owl. Easy fix.
Well done,
Gail

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Excellent pose and comp. Love the sky color, but agree that there appears to be a green cast on the owl and the snow. Sort of wish the horizon wasn't intersecting the bird, but the pose more than makes up for those minor complaints.

[Iain Barker]

Love this Loi, it is a great image. Love the wing position, eye contact and low angle.
Previous commentators know more than I do about processing so can really add anything extra.

TFS
Iain

[Karl Egressy]

Beautiful background and excellent pose, Loi.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Everyone, your suggestions are excellent. I knew the owl looks a bit off, but couldn't figure out what. and the suggestion to increase the saturation of the sky is right on the money. Her is a repost.

thanks again.

Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice pose, it looks a tad dark on my screen with a bit of an orange cast. Agree with looser crop

[Satish Ranadive]

Spectacular image.

Regards,
Satish.

[Troy Lim]

I love the repost even better, nice keeper here.