Barn Owl, Sticking the Landing (C)

[Bill Dix]

Here's another backlit Barn Owl frame from the Sonora Desert Museum last February.

D7000, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 2000, 1/2500s @ f/7.1 manual. Gitzo and Mongoose.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Bill, love the landing pose with stretched wings and the BG. IQ has suffered a bit here (was it soft focus?), the owl looks soft and lacking in detail a bit. maybe re-processing it would help?

also was this owl captive? if so please indicate in the title.

best

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Arash. The focus seems fairly sharp to me, but certainly not razor sharp. You would know better than I, but in other Barn Owl images I've seen, and a few of mine, the underwing and vent of the species seem to be silky smooth white with very little detail; the visible pattern is from the dorsal wing and tail spots showing through -- so it seems to give it a soft appearance. I did my best with Nikon Capture, CS5 and Topaz Detail, and sharpened as much as I dared without making it noisy. But yes, it probably could have been sharper.

As I had indicated in my prior post but forgot to indicate here, the owl was a (willing?) participant in a Raptor Free-flight program at the museum, so I suppose it should be indicated as captive.

[Bill Dix]

Does this look any sharper?

[gail bisson]

The repost is definitely sharper Bill.
This place sounds like a great place to visit.
Great pose as well.
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Gail. Yes, the museum is a great place. Even if it weren't for the raptor demonstrations, the extensive "garden" of Sonora Desert vegetation is not to be missed. It provides a great habitat for a number of non-captive species.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Bill, can you post a close crop of the RAW?

best

[Bill Dix]

Hi Arash. Here is a file that I cropped and converted directly from Nikon Capture NX-D into jpeg, sized for BPN. No changes other than crop and resize. Is that what you meant? I've never tried to do it without going through PS "Size for Web". It certainly does look soft when viewed this way.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Bill I actually meant a 100% crop of the RAW file. i.e. pixel level view. this one looks out of focus to me, I doubt if you can recover the IQ.

Best

[Bill Dix]

Hi Bill I actually meant a 100% crop of the RAW file. i.e. pixel level view. this one looks out of focus to me, I doubt if you can recover the IQ.

Best

I'm not sure how to do that in NX-D. But in any case, I believe you're right. There is no inherent sharpness to be recovered.

[arash_hazeghi]

you don't need NX-D just open the TIFF file in photoshop, crop an area of the head and save it as a JPEG without any re-sizing