the little one

[Wilhelm Waltermann]

Hello, last Week I saw my first Eurasian Pygmy-Owl. Weather was gray, dark and rainy. But, Iàm very lucky

7D Mk2, 1000 mm (500 IS with 2x TC), Tripod, f8, ISO 1250

[adrian dancy]

A very cute bird and well captured in difficult conditions.

[arash_hazeghi]

It's very rare bird ans certainly cute. The image is underexposed by about two stops and the owl is soft. unfortunately it would be difficult to recover as raising exposure will make the 7D2 file very noisy. The BG isn't ideal but I'd also be tempted to press the shutter if I see such a cute owl in the finder

TFS

[Anthony Thompson]

Im sure with some selective NR , Sharpening and curves layers you could get an improved image and keep the noise down. A 5min edit (i.e quick dodge n burn) on the jpg gave me this... With the raw the results would be better again.

[Wilhelm Waltermann]

oh jeah. this looks much better. I am not a computer-freak (old man). my RAW`s I work with "capture one Pro", the TIFF`s with Photoshop. maybe I must learn in an Workshop :-( W

[Anthony Thompson]

I did it in LR. Just used the adjustment brush... Ive used Capture One too and you can do the same with its adjustment brush, you can actually do more in C1 than LR due to the layers function in C1.

[Wilhelm Waltermann]

thank you for help, Anthony !
I'll try it

Wilhelm

[Anthony Thompson]

If you are wanting to try heres what i did.

1. use curves to brighten the entire image but focus on getting the brightness of the owl to what you like.
2. Using an adjustment brush reduce the exposure at about -1.0 (to start with) and paint the background - it will darken.
3. If its too dark lighten the adjustment brush exposure, if its too bright then bring the exposure down further.

Let me know how you go..

[arash_hazeghi]

the repost is better but still quite soft.

If you upload your RAW I'll work on it

[Daniel Cadieux]

Super awesome subject, with a perfect stare. The repost does address the underexposure. Tough background to deal with, but as Arash mentions most would be hard pressed to not pull the trigger on such a great subject. The image looks properly focused so I think the softness was a resizing issue. Did you sharpened the web-sized version before posting?

[Wilhelm Waltermann]

I sharpen twice . before and after the collapse . but very moderate.
first: 120 %...Radius 0,4....threhold value 0
than: 80..0,3...0
last a graduation S-curve +4....-4

arash: how to do that here with RAW-upload?

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Wilhelm you have to upload them somewhere else (like dropbox) and then send us a link to download

best