Theme - Snowy Owl - Up Close (C)

[William Dickson]

Canon 5D Mk3
f/4 500mm
f/8
1/1600
ISO 500

Something different here. I took this photograph at the Highland Wildlife Park in the Cairngorm National Park. Three snowy owls, one sitting on eggs, in quite a large, what I would describe as a 'very large cage'. The interior was as natural as can be with lots of vegetation growing and trees. The nest was on the ground near to the front where I was standing. The owl I photographed was bringing food (rodents and day old chicks) to the one on the nest, which gave me a good opportunity to get up close.

Thanks for looking and for the comments on my Lapwing, very much appreciated

Will

[stuart wanuck]

look into my eyes very nice

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Will ..... love this one !!! The eyes and the slight look up are priceless for me . Tones /color and contrast are looking good to me .
Is this a large crop ? IQ has suffered for my eyes , looking at the given techs .The image appears to be a bit noisy and the detail is somehow a bit crunchy for a Iso 500 shot .

Still very nice frame , TFS Andreas

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that guys, it was rather a big crop Andreas, here is the original

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Will for the clarification .... no wonder though for the missing 5D IQ , would be good if you could tell before hand that this is a large crop .
Cheers Andreas

[William Dickson]

My lens hood was pushed up against the cage, which was made from wire about once inch squares. I didn't have much room to get the focus point on the bird . Would that affect the focus, part of the glass being covered by the wire?

Will

[arash_hazeghi]

The intense eye contact is very capitvating,
poor IQ is due to bad processing, in particular noisy RAW conversion. send me the RAW file, I think it can be processed much better.

also please indicate captive bird with a (C)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Don't be afraid of using converters mate. I'd rather add one than crop heavily.
The OP looks OK and I love the eye contact. Just magnificent.
Shooting through wire is fine. You can generally see the areas where the OOF bits may creep in on the edges. From my limited experience shooting in the odd captive park it depends on the wire mesh sizing.

TFS

[keith mitchell]

Those eyes are fixed on you Will, great detail.

Keith.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nice shot Will, the wire wouldn't have done you any favours and the aperture and the diameter of the wire rings will have consequences. Sometimes you can see the ghostly effect of the wire so by moving the lens you can minimise the effect. Despite this you have a well detailed shot.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like what you were going for here Will. I like the eye contact. Good suggestion by Akos on using a converter.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Will, excellent exposure on the whites, and I really like how the plumage 'wraps' around the beak.

[arash_hazeghi]

this is my edit, the noise was entirely due to processing, also took out the orange cast from the very harsh light...

[William Dickson]

Hi Arash,

Thanks for that, it looks better. The whites look more softer and detailed. The eyes are more yellow.

Much appreciated and thanks for taking the time

Will

[Gabriela Plesea]

Stunning capture and I love Arash's RP, beautiful colours and detail, I am very taken with those feathers around the beak - such beautiful avian species, enjoyed viewing - very much:)

Kind regards,

[shane shacaluga]

Wow what a difference!

did you do any NR or special technique on the yellow iris Arash?

[arash_hazeghi]

Wow what a difference!

did you do any NR or special technique on the yellow iris Arash?

no, I didn't do any NR to the iris.

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks for confirming

Would be good to see a side by side processing for each image to see at what points the noise is increased in OP vs RP