Snowy Owl in Flight

[Loi Nguyen]

I was one of the lucky one to have an afternoon with beautiful sunshine in Ottawa and an awesome snowy. Thanks to Daniel. Can't wait to see what comes down from the Arctic this coming winter.

I had posted this image before, and recently made a large 20X40 print for my office. But I was a bit disappointed with the print. The BG was much too light while the snow was a dull grey. So started from scratch and would like your feedback, especially if Daniel could weigh in as he 'was there"

1DX
70-200 f2.8 II + 1.4X @ 280mm
1/3200
F8
ISO-800
HH while lying on snow.

Adjusted black point LR5 to just before clipping.

in CS6

Added +0.16EV exposure
Added contrast
Added a few black points in Selective Colors to further darken the BG and reduce black point in the snow to whiten it.
Applied a small amount of warming filter to the snow.
Applied a small Nik to the face of the owl to bring out details
NR selectively
USM: 100/0.3/0

Cropped for composition, full width.
Removed a small distracting bit on the snow.

Owl was baited.

I will re-print this image for my office, so appreciate your comments.

Thank you

Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the nice light and the view of the feet. I wish the eyes-which are the dominant feature of this specie-were more open, I like the tree line in the BG, but it was unfortunate that the wings fell right on it.

TFS

[Shawn Zierman]

Color and exposure wise this looks awesome Loi. I like the composition as it speaks to how long of a wingspan this species has, and their ability to manipulate small amounts of airspace right off the ground. Monitors always seem more vibrant and brighter than prints do in my limited experience. If I go to print something that big, I will print a few different versions (processed bright, brighter, brightist) of it much smaller to see which one looks like it will represent the colors and light I want in the final product.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Loi, this brings back great memories from that sunny but very cold afternoon. We were lucky indeed as "Clementine" was not there at first but this one across the road put on a show for us! I really like the pano crop you chose here, and the low flight path looks great...I can see why you would want this printed. The tree line adds interest and colour. IMO the brightness and colours as posted and viewed online looks very good. If you use a reputable printer they will surely have a colour profile to their machine that you can download and use to touch up the image. Some more deluxe home printers also have profiles to install and use to match colours and luminosity...

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very nice light, love the pose and eye contact. I also like the clean BG. I hope your next print will represent what you saw.

[Richard Flack]

This is a really beautiful image Loi. Out the top drawer! Well done

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Loi , like it as presented , ready for the print , at least at this size .
Well done man .

[gail bisson]

Hi Loi,
I like this image very much. I wonder what type of printer and what type of paper you used for this print.These 2 variables can really affect a print. I always use a professional printer for my special prints. They are experts in selecting the proper paper for the colors in the print and tweaking all the PP that is needed for that particular print.They also always have far superior printers than I could ever afford.
Can you tell us how you had your image printed?

[David Salem]

Looks great Loi. The whites are nice and white. Lots of nice detail in the owl too. Should print fine. Not sure what happened but this one looks ready. I know you are ordering some canvases from me soon, this one might be a good candidate for a canvas as well. Well done

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Loi,
I like this image very much. I wonder what type of printer and what type of paper you used for this print.These 2 variables can really affect a print. I always use a professional printer for my special prints. They are experts in selecting the proper paper for the colors in the print and tweaking all the PP that is needed for that particular print.They also always have far superior printers than I could ever afford.
Can you tell us how you had your image printed?

Gail, I went back to see my original image that I sent to Nations Photo Labs in Maryland and there was no question that the PP had problems. The BG was much too light while the snow was much too gray. My mistake was to try to keep the white in the 230-235 range on the owl face without doing much with the bG and the snow. Here is the original post that I posted on FB (not a fair comparison as it is lower resolution, but you will get the idea).

So I went back from LR5, first is to adjust the black point until it almost clips. then instead of reducing the exposure, I increased the exposure by +0.16 to keep the snow white and then pplied a little bit of warming filter to remove the blue.

Then the rest is more straightforward. I think this is a great exercise for me to really think about an image instead of just following the workflow in a mechanical way.

I chose metallic print, no color adjustment, and the original had Adober RGB profile. This new one I wills end out later I will stick with sRGB to be safe. Any tips on printing large print would be most appreciated.


David, does your printer does the 20X40 canvas print? or only 24X36?

Thank you everyone for your comments. I hope this print will look the way I had envisioned.

Loi

[David Salem]

Loi, yes they do a 40"X20" pano in canvas. I did a 40X16 of a burrowing owl that turned out awesome.

Nice frame.

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Loi! I like the IQ, exposure, curved wing tips, setting and composition.