Great Gray owl at Sax Zim Bog

[Michael Thompson]

It was so cool to see this Owl, one of three on this snowy day. Canon 7D, Sigma 150-500 at 403 mm, f7.1, 1/500 ss, 800 iso Lightroom sharpening, levels, and cropping.

[Stuart Philpott]

Hiya Michael ,what a wonderfully atmospheric image,of a stunning subject. Michael can you tell me more about the crop please,personally i'm a little unsure on the crop but the viewer doesn't know what your constraints are. Much to like here Mike,the birch and it's peeling bark add for me,obviously the snow and that wonderful two eyed stare you have caught .

Many thanks lovely to view Michael, amazing birds the great grey,I wish you all the luck with them

Stu

[Isaac Grant]

Beautiful image of a Great Gray in natural surroundings. Love the peeling birch and the snow fall. Maybe an uncoventional crop but everything else is so nice that it works for me.

I do find the image a bit dark and lacking punch. While I understand that it was a dark snowy day, I still feel there was more color and details evident than I see here. I did an edit where I went into Viveza and raised the brightness + 7 and saturation + 5 and contrat +3. Then used Color efex and used a 25/25 tonal contrast/detail extractor to bring out additional details. Then I selected only the bird and applied some additional sharpening (smart sharpen at 100% and .5) using David Salem's settings. Of course there are lots of things that could be done, but I did about a 1 minute edit just to bring some added color and details out.

Lovely image of a species I really wish I had the opportunity to photograph.

[William Dickson]

This also works for me Michael. Lovely colours throughout the image and a nice pose with the BG blending in with the image.

Will

[Michael Thompson]

Thanks for the feedback! the extra sharpening helps for sure. I was a bit stumped on cropping, with out any crop, the owl was right in the center, but I did not want to crop out that cool tree either, so any ideas would be great to hear! Thanks!

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the mood and the presentation with the snow, but the IQ is not there, the bird lacks feather details and sharpness as Issac noted too, I thin some of it is because the image was severely underexposed assuming the above is the original.

TFS

[Michael Thompson]

I like the mood and the presentation with the snow, but the IQ is not there, the bird lacks feather details and sharpness as Issac noted too, I thin some of it is because the image was severely underexposed assuming the above is the original.

TFS

I agree. way under exposed, I took this last year before I came here and learned correct exposure, plus poor lighting, and sub par equipment. I went back this year with my new knowledge, and way better lens and camera, same beautiful scene and snow, but then dipped on the birds.