Florida Burrowing Owl

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image in Cape Coral, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED image captured at 400mm
1/1600 F/8 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 6400 Auto 1 WB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC 2018
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp. You handled what can be a very awkward subject size nicely.

with love and thanks for sharing, artie

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the eyes, and the dark BG. A bit of a blue cast due to the shade, and some noise present in the BG - both which should be easy fixes.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

So clear it almost looks unreal Joe, well done!

[Joseph Przybyla]

I love the eyes, and the dark BG. A bit of a blue cast due to the shade, and some noise present in the BG - both which should be easy fixes.

Hi Daniel, thank you for viewing and commenting. Here is a repost addressing your suggestions for improving my image.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, have you applied NR across the whole image, everything looks flat and smooth. Prefer the OP for colour, it's all a bit too yellow for me in the RP. Are the eyes that 'Kodak' yellow, as our Little Owls are pale yellow and the layering within the yellow far more prominent.

TFS
Steve

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Very Nice Image. I would apply selective NR to Background and Adjust the Colors, it is also a bit Yellow to me.

[Dorian Anderson]

Very nice result in what look like very low lighting conditions! Beautiful details and stare. NR to BG would help, as noted.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Joe, have you applied NR across the whole image, everything looks flat and smooth. Prefer the OP for colour, it's all a bit too yellow for me in the RP. Are the eyes that 'Kodak' yellow, as our Little Owls are pale yellow and the layering within the yellow far more prominent.

TFS
Steve

Hi Steve, most likely I applied the same noise reduction to the whole image. Yesterday I worked on the image again applying noise reduction in different amounts to the bird and background producing several iterations. I read again and used Arash's method explained in his tutorial. The yellow cast to the edited image was from a poor choice of white balance. Here is an edit that I think is the best, showing the bird as it was in the low early morning light.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Joe, OK we work in different ways so no problem. Just remember, if you are currently using the latest LR some of the Default setting have changed, and so you can have more increases compare to previous, NOT a great move Adobe. Also watch that you are not using that 'stupid' Adobe colour for Camera calibration, whoever came up with those new filters needs their head examined.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Steve, most likely I applied the same noise reduction to the whole image. Yesterday I worked on the image again applying noise reduction in different amounts to the bird and background producing several iterations. I read again and used Arash's method explained in his tutorial. The yellow cast to the edited image was from a poor choice of white balance. Here is an edit that I think is the best, showing the bird as it was in the low early morning light.

Thanks for the plug for The Professional Post Processing Guide based on Neat Image V8.2. Arash and I did that one together. Folks can learn more here.