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Thread: Long Eared Owl Taking Off

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    Default Long Eared Owl Taking Off

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    Recently rejoined after a little break from the forum...

    Would appreciate any feedback on this owl. The lighting was such that the sun, right near golden hour, was from my right; hence the bird has a warm look about him. The sky was blueish behind him though. Did basic adjustments in RAW, and used Topaz and Nik filters (Denoise, contrast color, detail extractor, and polarizer on the sky) and adjusted shadows a bit.

    Most seemed to like it including other photographers, and I'm happy with the eyes but if I'm missing something please let me know.

    Thanks for any feedback. Hindsight: would go higher on shutter speed. The motion on the wing tips isn't a dealbreaker as he's moving, but still would probably go 1/2000.

    Been very happy with the Z9 so far; a whole new world from my D850 with grip. I really thought I got nothing of the owl taking off as I was just waiting and shooting him perched.

    Nikon Z9, ISO 640, 800 5.6, 1/1250.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    The owl appears to be a little saturated and full of contrast and also grainy. Was the owl underexposed? I wonder if a little TLC in PSCC as opposed to all the Plugins would have been a better option?

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi Paul ... good to hear that you found your way back to the forum .
    Congrats to the new Nikon kit and good to hear that the Z9 seems to work for you and might love it .

    Regarding the image , well I do love the fly off pose of the owl and the downstare does look great . Boxy crop is not my favorite in general ... and I do find it just ok , not really nice to be honest . But no big deal as tastes do vary ...
    Looking at your techs I would expect finer image details ... would expect more from a Z9 . A lot of plugins were used in the process ....
    Nice warm light and colors ...

    TFS Andreas

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    Thanks for the replies, not sure what I can do but I did work on it a big again, little less saturation, tried to make the owl less grainy too.

    Name:  z LEO Taking Off Adjusted I.jpg
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    Super Moderator arash_hazeghi's Avatar
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    pretty owl, and nice take off frame. the main issue with this image is that it's not sharp because the shutter speed was too slow at 1/1250 sec. sharpening it will just make it noisy like the original... pity though as it was a cool frame. the repost bot contrasty with blocked black

    TFS you got the artistic element now need to focus more on the settings, namely for take off you need at least 1/3000 sec (even faster when the bird is coming at you)
    Last edited by arash_hazeghi; 02-02-2022 at 02:10 AM.
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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Hey Paul, This is an incredible take-off pose. The
    color and contrast on the original look more than fine
    to me. As for the shutter speed business, I agree with Arash. I try to shoot flight at at least 1/2500 sec. Birds taking off (and ducks diving require even faster SSs. I am looking forward to seeing more Z9 images.

    with love, artie
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    BPN Member Dorian Anderson's Avatar
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    Others have made the SS argument perfectly, so heed those comments moving forward. That said, the head s pretty well frozen, so you got lucky there. What's more concerning is that the whole bird looks 'crunchy'; that suggests something is off in the processing workflow. You were at ISO 640, so noise shouldn't be a problem unless you were grossly underexposed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi View Post
    pretty owl, and nice take off frame. the main issue with this image is that it's not sharp because the shutter speed was too slow at 1/1250 sec. sharpening it will just make it noisy like the original... pity though as it was a cool frame. the repost bot contrasty with blocked black

    TFS you got the artistic element now need to focus more on the settings, namely for take off you need at least 1/3000 sec (even faster when the bird is coming at you)
    Thanks, appreciate it, I think it was just camera settings a touch too slow.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Arthur Morris View Post
    Hey Paul, This is an incredible take-off pose. The
    color and contrast on the original look more than fine
    to me. As for the shutter speed business, I agree with Arash. I try to shoot flight at at least 1/2500 sec. Birds taking off (and ducks diving require even faster SSs. I am looking forward to seeing more Z9 images.

    with love, artie
    Thanks Artie, I'm loving the camera so far; traded in my D500, 850 and D6, and kept the F mount 800 5.6 and light and fun 500 5.6, and went S glass for 14-24, 24-70 and the 100-400, getting the Z9 and a Z7ii as a backup which is mainly for landscapes. Too expensive to just move to Sony outright glad I waited, Nikon I think really did a nice job and I think with the A1, Z9 and R3/R5 we're all around the same ballpark. It does a great job holding focus I think. Just need to boost shutter speed as I was focusing on perched birds, light was waning so I was a little slow but could have easily boosted SS up more in anticipation of take off.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Thanks, Paul. I am looking forward to seeing more especially flight at higher shutter speeds. Do not be scared to really boost the ISO as needed.

    with love, artie
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

    BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.

    Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,

    E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.










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