What's up!

[keith mitchell]

Short Eared Owl.
Nikon D7000
Nikon 300ml 2.8
1/640@f8
iso 500

Posted this before but with some processing problems which I hope I have sorted(lot of help with tips on processing on this forum, thanks).

Thanks for looking and your comments on my last post.

[christopher galeski]

nice one,dont recall seeing this before,love the light,nice detail,the head angle is different,certainly got its eyes on something.TFS.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful owl... the only thing I would have wished for would have been for it to look at me instead of up. The eye contact would have taken it over the top.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely light you had here and I like the effects of the side lighting. You had a gorgeous BG, and the perch and fence work well since this is where you find these owls so often. I might consider a tad more sharpening and a little more space on top. Love how the bird pops with that light against that BG.

[keith mitchell]

Thanks Chris could be the old memory, Joe I have lots of shots with the Owls looking at me ,will post at a later date, Marina thanks will take another look at the sharping.

Keith.

[Bill Dix]

Boy would I love to get this close to one of these beauties. Love the light and the background, and the focused look. I don't mind the square crop here, but my own personal preference would have put a little more room on the left, with corresponding crop on the right. Yes to more sharpening. Wish this were mine.

[keith mitchell]

Thanks Marina/ Bill, here is it with a couple of passes of usm,don't like to apply too much hate hard looking feathers, would be interested to know what you think.

[Bill Dix]

Overall, I like that much better. My only thought would be to selectively erase the sharpening layer in those few areas of white on the wings and coverts, that do begin to get crunchy.

[keith mitchell]

Thanks Bill.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the BG, eye clarity, side lighting and sharpness in the repost. There is a spot in the BG just over the owl's left eye that is brighter than the rest of the BG. Well done Keith.

[gail bisson]

Love, love the light!
Great BG . I see a line of green above the owls left forehead that looks like a PP artifact.
I think the repost is a bit crunchy for my taste. Maybe something between the Op and the repost.
I could see a version with a bit more on the top.
Perch is fine.
Nice image,
Gail

[Grace Scalzo]

Keith, Just a superb species to photograph. Nice perch, beautiful background, and the gaze of the owl is sweet. (Makes me wonder what he is looking at.) My opinion on sharpening....I think that you just need a bit more contrast selectively applied to the breast and face. I personally use either nik tonal contrast (detail extractor set really low) or one of the MacPhun filters, but I'm sure that there are many other ways to do this. Right above his right eye as viewed, there is a bit of a problem with your selection. I would also prefer more room up top.

[keith mitchell]

Thanks Grace, pleased you pointed out my sloppy bit of selection on the head ,must say I missed this.

Keith.

[David Salem]

Nice frame Keith. I think this is from the same series for a while back except it is looking up. What a great looking individual and I like the mossy perch and the nice BG. Techs look good to me and I like comp as he is looking up. Well done