Eastern Screech Owl

[Anthony Barsotti]

I think this is the same owl as the one I posted about a week ago, looking more like an adult now. Shot just after dusk last night with my Canon 1DX Mark II and 600mm f/4 IS II. 1/2sec f/4 ISO 3200, tripod mounted with IS disengaged and using live view and a cable release to minimize vibration. Processed in Topaz Denoise AI and then photoshop with some curves adjustment layers to balance exposure and remove some color casts. I'm amazed at how much more detail the 1DX Mark II is able to resolve at 3200 than my old Mark I. Hope you like it, thanks for looking.

[arash_hazeghi]

love the bird and the stare, unfortunately the cluttered environment is holding it back. Not much you could have done here with the busy BG, branches etc.

the chest feathers have taken a beating from the NR but not bad overall. I didn't find the 1DXII to be any better than 1DX I both of which I had for a long time, both were great at high ISO. The Adobe software is very poor when it comes to handling of the high ISO Canon files (and Nikon) so what you are seeing is probably the incremental improvement of Adobe SW for 1DX II rather than the camera itself.

TFS

[Anthony Barsotti]

Yeah the background definitely wasn’t ideal, the spot these guys roost in is this gnarled tree with twigs and branches sticking out everywhere so this is basically as clear as it gets unfortunately. I may go back and try to apply NR with DPP instead of DeNoise AI, I’m still not sold on that software. It introduces some really strange artifacts sometimes and the sharpening has been hit or miss for me.

[John Mack]

Love those big eyes. This must have been in some low light. Yes the setting is cluttered but this is what you had to work with right.

[arash_hazeghi]

Yeah the background definitely wasn’t ideal, the spot these guys roost in is this gnarled tree with twigs and branches sticking out everywhere so this is basically as clear as it gets unfortunately. I may go back and try to apply NR with DPP instead of DeNoise AI, I’m still not sold on that software. It introduces some really strange artifacts sometimes and the sharpening has been hit or miss for me.

I used DPP for 12 years from version 1 to version 4.8, I never saw strange artifacts with it. I still use it today to process my Canon files...

best