I captured this image in April on a trip to southern Florida. Sometimes if one moves the bird will follow with body and gaze, this one would not. I guess it did not want to look into the sun. I had to do work dodging and burning of the area of the eyes, also opening the shadow on the left eye along with exposure on both eyes so they would appear reasonably the same. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.
Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering 0 EV ISO 400 AWB, camera on a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10
Cropped for composition
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Since you mentioned the left eye, I notice it is a little brighter than the right. I wouldn't have picked the amount of dodging you describe. :)
Lovely pose in some not so nice light. The pants look a little hot, but probably OK on exposure. Great little character and still a nice image Joseph. Wish we had these down under.
Hi Joseph the Owl gave you a nice head on stare and i love the low POV with a priceless clean BG . Crop works for me , but would also try in portrait crop !
I might try to burn the HL to give them a bit more depth .
Joe I would not have noticed the eye if you had not mentioned it, think you have done a remarkable job with this and your bright Florida light,I would be very pleased with this.
Hi Joseph, I like the fact he/she is just slightly off centre, enough to make a difference. Cool backdrop which isolates the subject. Looks like the subject has a bit more (guts) overall tone, compare to the previous images which I like.
I had to do work dodging and burning of the area of the eyes, also opening the shadow on the left eye along with exposure on both eyes so they would appear reasonably the same.
You can see some work has been applied, but be careful when making adjustments, if one half is in shade, opening up that area to balance the eyes may create the wrong effect/look . I would have concerns about going portrait as you would be throwing away a lot of information and then asking a lot of the pixels, so try to shoot in both formats, if time allows.
Good image of this classic SW Florida owl.
I like the little purple flowers.
PP looks good. Light appears a bit harsh but I think the exposure is spot on for the conditions. Great POV,
Gail
I like the horizontal crop as is because of a small but important element (for me anyway): the two oof flowers at left. You would lose that going vertical. Good processing work. You could try adding 3-4 points of reds in "Color Balance" as there seems to be a faint cyan-green cast, at least on this monitor.
Florida Burrowing Owl
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. I would have concerns about going portrait as you would be throwing away a lot of information and then asking a lot of the pixels, so try to shoot in both formats, if time allows.
