Here's looking at you!

[keith mitchell]

Little Owl.
Nikon D4
Nikon 300mm 2.8
1/200 F7.1
ISO 2000.

Taken from my hide about 10ft away from the post(did think about removing the white stuff but decided to leave well alone), this was the pose given to me when the bird landed it's a bit of putting thinking the bird can see you but this was not the case and sat happily for about ten minutes.

Thanks for looking and your comments on my Snipe post.

Keith.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Lovely image, Keith. Bird, background, perch all compliment each other. I find the white on the perch pulls my eyes from the owl but with the texture of the perch it may be difficult to remove. Thank you for sharing.

[Bill Dix]

Now that's eye contact! Great look. Beautiful background, too. I do find the white a little distracting, natural though it is. It might be worth a version that tones it down somewhat. I might also try to brighten the bird.

[arash_hazeghi]

love those eyes and the nice BG, good perch too except for I'd be tempted to clone out the dropping. the image has a slight blue cast to it and can use a bit of warming...

TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Fantastic Keith, your best, no question!

Agree with Bill & Arash, great eye contact and I love that 'weathered' post! Will leave it with Arash about the Blue as i'm away, easy fix Keith though, but warming it slightly may take some of it out. Get that ISO to 6400 .

A pleasure to view.

TFS
Steve

[Lorant Voros]

Super nice with the intense eyes, rolled body and the talons. Agree with trying to warm it up a bit. Well done.

[keith mitchell]

This is slightly warmer.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very good pose great eye contact I really like the image, the colours do look just a tad awry to me. As soon as I said it you reposted, I think this one looks a tad yellow.

[dennis greenwood]

My favourite bird,as said it appears white balance is out

[Diane Miller]

A gorgeous bird -- just needs a little more work on tonalities. I tweaked color balance, yellow to -47, green to -10, red to +1. Lightened the bird with a Curves, to hold contrast in the darks. Darkened the bottom part of the post.

Posting here it looks a little too green, but since I don't know the bird I won't try to fine-tune. You can see my point, though. Tweak colors to taste.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Keith, based on the OP, if you +8 Temp, -19 on the Tint and -53 on the Blue you ill get an almost 50, 50, 50, across the board for the WB, then you can tweak it to your hearts content. If you take the techs out, it's a cracking image, so lets just enjoy it.

Top marks.

[adrian dancy]

Keith...what time of day was this image made. It looks to me as though you/bird were cast in shadow with a setting sun behind wispy clouds behind you, with a blue sky above?

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Keith, how is that eye contact/stare down look - brilliant!!!!! I do like that weathered perch, killer smooth BG, and just a touch more exposure would do it for me.

[keith mitchell]

Thanks to you all, Diane I like your repost it's very close to how I saw the Owl, perhaps I can PM you if that's ok,Steve will be in touch, Adrian you must have been with me, sat in my hide four 2+hours by then the light was starting to go which was fine in some respects .
Got a few shots of this bird so will be able to put into practice some of the tips given to me,thanks a lot.

Keith.

[christopher galeski]

very nice Keith,Diane's post is the one for me,nice BG, the bird is sharp with nice detail,agree on removing the bird muck on the perch.TFS.

[Diane Miller]

Keith, PMs always welcome!

[adrian dancy]

Thanks for response Keith. First of all you have a superb capture with this lovely bird looking down the barrel of your lens:). You have caught some nice detail. For me, I am not bothered by the white poop on the post. I can however see why others would want it removed.

The reason I asked the question above was to establish the nature of the light you were shooting in. It looks to me that the direct sunlight had all but gone and you were left with ambient light from the blue sky above which from my experience would make a scene 'cool'. The slightly oily feathers and light tones will pick up scattered blue light. In my humble opinion the colours of your original post are within the boundary of what I would expect and I would caution against adding too much warmth if you are wishing to portray what you saw.

[Ivan Ellison]

Cracker Keith, real intense stare and good detail, Others more qualified than me will no doubt help with your colours, Sometimes though the colours are as they are, due to light etc as has been commented on above. Wish it was my shot anyway.

[keith mitchell]

Thanks to you all much appreciated.

Keith.