The Stare...

[Joseph Przybyla]

I have been on a roll lately for posting portraits, so why stop now. This is a Florida Burrowing Owl captured in Cape Coral, Florida. This owl is small, only about 9 inches (24cm) tall. This image is a larger crop than I would have preferred but I think the IQ held up pretty well...WDYT?? I was 23 feet (7meters) from the bird, giving the bird respect and distance during mating and raising a family. The bird was perched above the burrow in the ground below. 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 (600mmFFE)
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering 0 EV ISO 200 AWB, camera on a monopod, cropped from a horizontal
Post processed in Lightroom 6 and Photoshop Elements 10

[Karl Egressy]

Nice portrait shot, Joe. Love the stare.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I would love a looser crop. I think the IQ is really suffering here Joseph.
Were you trying to crop tight due to a "boring" perch?

TFS

[christopher galeski]

nice portrait,like the BG,some good detail.TFS.

[keith mitchell]

Joe you have captured some super detail, those eyes make it for me.

Keith.

[Joseph Przybyla]

I would love a looser crop. I think the IQ is really suffering here Joseph.
Were you trying to crop tight due to a "boring" perch?

TFS

Hi Akos,

Here is the image that I took the tighter crop from. Wondering what you see in the portrait crop regarding IQ suffering? I ask this because I thought it held up pretty good. Thank you for viewing and commenting, I appreciated you taking time and value your opinion.

[Shawn Zierman]

Wow, the second image is killer imo...light could be little more low angled, but still, if that is full frame you really nailed the in camera work...and the fine details are what holds up better....some of that is how you handled the sharpening which was a little coarse in the OP, but imo, you've got a winner with the second image. I like the perch and find it interesting. You might consider warming the white balance a little as one possible tweak...

[stuart wanuck]

Like the whole image

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Joeseph, great eye contact, and I feel the IQ is on the edge. Before reading Shawn's comment and looking at your repost, I wouldnt think twice about not posting the full image as in your repost. Come in a touch from the left, and bit from the right, tone down the BG with a multiply blending layer, and you have a winner. That perch is just fine. I couldnt resist - here is what I had in mind

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

You can just tell the IQ is suffering. The details look like they are kind of rough, kind of pixelated. Not sure how to explain. Once you see lots of heavily cropped photos you notice the thing I am talking about.

The original frame is fantastic mate! I would not hesitate to share it that way either. The perch is fine by me for sure. Stu's RP is a bit tamer looking with regards to lighting as well.

[arash_hazeghi]

The poor quality is not coming from the crop, but from non-optimal RAW conversion which has added a lot of noise, see a similar image here


http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...l-Up-Close-(C)

this one looks exactly like that with a ton of noise in the eye and crunchy details as a result of poor RAW conversion.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone, especially Akos, Stuart, and Arash. I can see from Stu's edit and Arash's processing of the Snowy Owl what can be accomplished and that I need to pay more attention to the raw conversion. I went back to the original of my posted Burrowing Owl, processed it, watching carefully what each action did to the image. This image side by side with the original posting the differences are obvious. Any opinions and suggestions for improvement would be appreciated.