Boobook Owl

[Ian McLachlan]

This little guy is pretty well all over this country but I havn't seen too many. Taken at a raptor demo. at the Desert Park near Alice Springs. The light was a little bright but right behind me and not bad at 4.15 pm a month or so off the shortest day.
Took a bit of fluff off the back of the bird but when I looked closely the rest of the softness on the back it was was feather so left it there. I like the wings in that position and just a touch of the left hand eye sort of adds to the intent I think . c.and c. very welcome.



1DXD
400 DO mk 2
400mm
1/3200
HH
f4
Man.
640 ISO

[Bill Dix]

I like the wing position too. Face is good and sharp. The back looks a bit blurred, either from your cloning or NR possibly?? Some NR or very slight Blur applied to the BG might help, IMO.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Ian, beautiful owl. I echo Bill's comments, I also think you softened the back by removing the fluff. Not sure what you use to post process but if mine I would mask the background in in Lightroom using the Adjustment Brush, reduce Noise by 100% and reduce Clarity by maybe 50 to 100%. I think that would soften the background. Thank you for sharing.

[Ian McLachlan]

.Thank you both, will work on those suggestions. The fluff I took out was away from the back where the softness is. The back was soft in the raw: I used LR and then Photoshop's Smart Sharpening at 100% at .5 radius. Then Select then Inverse with the Neat image plug in .

I'm not sure how much depth of field I'm getting with this 400 DO MK2 but the 600 f4 seems to be just so much more even in all my images and what we all see on BPN . At 1/3200 I wouldn't have thought there should have been any problem.

Just wonder if any else is having any problems with their 400 .Obviously Arash isn't .
Thanks again.

[David Salem]

This is fantastic Ian!! The tack Sharp face, that open beak and those crazy eyes are just killer but the beautiful forward wing position really takes this up a few notches. Light angle and detals look great too.
Nothing wrong with your lens, it's just the limited DOF of your lens and the distance you are from your subject.
I suspect you were pretty close?
Well done, one of your best frames

[John Mack]

Excellent, Love the down wing position and the open beak.

[Ian McLachlan]

Thanks John, and David you are right that I was pretty close and having looked at it more closely the DOF is lost slightly at the front as well as the back which we can't do much about at f4 if we want to deal with the background. I really appreciate the comments about these details from everyone . This site is just so valuable especially to those of us who don t have big populations of mad B.I.F. photographers nearby.
Thanks again.