Great Horned Owlets on Saguaro

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon 500mm/4
1/30 sec f/6.3 ISO 400 + Fill Flash (Canon 600EX-RT) with BB

Brightening on birds in Nik Viveza
Small crop for comp, sharpening in CS6

[Iain Barker]

Hi Ian

This is a nice clear view of these chicks with good detail in the feathers. You seem to have some steel eye from the flash on most of the eyes. I would definitely work on the eyes if this were mine as they are the main focus of the image and I think they could be easily fixed.

TFS
Iain

[Diane Miller]

Different and interesting! What a great find!! And very sharp for 1/30 sec, although if the flash was the main light its duration would have been much less.

I'm undecided about the cyan cast on the owls, and surprised to see it if the flash was very dominant. I'd try fixing it and decide what I liked best.

Do work on the eyes, and I'd try to patch the leftmost eye (our left) which has the nictitating membrane partially closed.

[Doug West]

Don't know what that background is, but I love it. In a way it mimics
the shape of lines in the foreground.

I'd look into taking care of that very small, out of focus item located
at the lower right hand corner.

Doug

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Beautiful! I just love these curious creatures! An owl is one of the few birds where such a slow shutter speed has a chance of working and it absolutely worked here! Nice one!

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks everyone for your advice and I will definitely go back and work on those eyes. The OOF object on the right is a piece of the cactus and you're right, that's gotta go. Doug, that BG is an arm of the Saguaro cactus in which they are sitting. I'm at work on a crummy monitor today and don't see the Cyan cast you mention, Diane, but will look on my good monitor when I get home.

[Diane Miller]

Here's a very quick attempt at an adjustment. Much better done in raw conversion.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Incredibly Sweet Ian! Great capture! I think Diane did perfectly in dropping back the Cyan cast. One question: Is the little one on our lower right ok? He looks a bit "glassy"... Wonderful bunch of "kids" you have there!