Flolrida Burrowing Owls

[Joseph Przybyla]

This pair of owls built their burrow in St. Augustine grass. Image captured in Cape Coral, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 VR AF-S ED shot at 300mm (450mm FFE)
1/400 F/8 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 320 AWB
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017
Cropped for composition and presentation

P.S. Would a moderator correct the typo in the word Florida in the title.

[John Whaley]

Great shot. You got the perfect eye level angle and great eye contact.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, nicely framed, great PoV and the pose of the two owls, IMHO, are just perfect, nice engagement with the viewer too, however...

For me, the image looks over cooked with Saturation and the detail seems to be lacking in the subjects, as there isn't much detail in the eyes and main plumage, although you have got facial detail??? I just feel pulling back on the Saturation and perhaps the Contrast, Shadow & Blacks may help and so things gel rather than compete. Having not been there I could well be wrong and this is very faithful, however I don't want this to take away a great sighting.

TFS
Steve

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe, nicely framed, great PoV and the pose of the two owls, IMHO, are just perfect, nice engagement with the viewer too, however...

For me, the image looks over cooked with Saturation and the detail seems to be lacking in the subjects, as there isn't much detail in the eyes and main plumage, although you have got facial detail??? I just feel pulling back on the Saturation and perhaps the Contrast, Shadow & Blacks may help and so things gel rather than compete. Having not been there I could well be wrong and this is very faithful, however I don't want this to take away a great sighting.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, here is an edit and repost. Your suggestions were pretty much spot on. I had increased the contrast, saturation, and blacks. Also my settings for exporting from Lightroom to the web were not what I normally use, fixed that also. Trusting this is an improvement.

[Steve Kaluski]

That's better Joe, but I still feel the Blacks & Shadows are running too deep? Perhaps somewhere between the two as this was my original thought???

cheers
Steve

[William Dickson]

Very nice image Joe. Great stare. Nice FG blending well with the BG. I like the position of the birds within the frame. I do like Steve's repost.

Will

[Joseph Przybyla]

That's better Joe, but I still feel the Blacks & Shadows are running too deep? Perhaps somewhere between the two as this was my original thought???

cheers
Steve

I see where you are going with this, here is a repost reducing the shadows and blacks. The tones are more even and not jammed up as in the original. Now a question...when you look at an image how do you know what sliders will improve it? Just experience or can you tell from the histogram or other indications? As it is said... three's a charm.

[Steve Kaluski]

Now a question...when you look at an image how do you know what sliders will improve it? Just experience or can you tell from the histogram or other indications?

Hi Joe, I always err on caution with Contrast, Shadows & Blacks, but that's just me, as I like to keep my files 'open', especially whilst in the RAW stage, primarily to ensure I keep as much detail within the original file. I will then use perhaps a Channel Curve(s) or Levels with a Channel Curves adjustment etc to help 'build' the exported Tiff, but obviously all tweaks are subject to that particular file and they are perhaps only one course of adjustment, there may be others adjustments applied. The best advice IMHO is ETTR, having a well exposed image is the best starting point and to capture as much 'data' within the original Histogram. You may have say six sliders in the Exposure Module to adjust, but you don't always have to use them.