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Thread: Hunting Long Eared Owl

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    Default Hunting Long Eared Owl

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    Am fortunate to live within an hour of a couple of go-to spots for long and short eared owls.

    This was at another spot, and I liked the light better with the setting sun behind me; the owl flew in a farm field so I like the background too.

    Will continue to go higher on SS next time; this was 1/1600, f 5.6, ISO 1600. Nikon Z9, Nikon 800 5.6.

    Thanks for any thoughts.

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    Hi Paul. This is a very dramatic shot...amazing light here. Super sharp on the bird, and those eyes are so piercing! My only thought is that perhaps it's a little too sharp and contrasty...but others may disagree. TFS

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    Lifetime Member Mike Poole's Avatar
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    Superb action Paul, go to love that stare. Beautiful light. Sharper than a sharp thing, I'm only on the MacBook at present, so maybe wrong but it does look a little heavy on the blacks. Should be a simple thing to revisit, well worth it for a shot of this quality

    Mike

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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Superb incoming flight shot. Great stare, light, pose. Congratulations!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Poole View Post
    Superb action Paul, go to love that stare. Beautiful light. Sharper than a sharp thing, I'm only on the MacBook at present, so maybe wrong but it does look a little heavy on the blacks. Should be a simple thing to revisit, well worth it for a shot of this quality

    Mike
    Thanks, I'll check out the blacks too, overall was pretty happy just to see this guy fly by, was driving slowly and had to jump out quick to get some shots off.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi Paul, I do like in both postings that you have eye contact with the viewer, but overall I find the image quite dark and heavy 'contrasty' masking a lot of detail. I will try to convey my thoughts, but overall the IQ should be a lot better based on files I have seen recently from the Z9. Also I think the WB is also slightly off even with the setting sun, but thats just my take.

    1. When posting you need to convert the file so it has an sRGB embedded profile which will stop any colour shift when posted.
    2. Expose as far right of the Histogram as possible, a few blinkies (blown highlights) you could leave or just drop the exposure back by a 1/3. By getting an almost perfect exposure, especially at higher ISO, the 'noise' will be far more easily controlled and so the detail, clarity and sharpness of the capture will be better. Combatting noise can to a degree loose detail and so more sharping is required and so you get into this 'washing machine' cycle. So be mindful of how and where you apply it, these days cameras like the Z9 have no problem shooting at higher ISO, so don't let pushing the ISO hold you back.
    3. Push the ISO to gain more SS for flight shots, you should be OK upto ISO6400, probably more, but...
    4. Try to avoid hefty crops, even with a 45mpx and it's good to add if the image is cropped in the intro
    5. When processing keep the manipulations/adjustments to a minimum and you don't need to add everything into the mix and apply ever bit of software, just look at the file and try to think what you need to do to achieve the final goal. Having a vision to the final look & feel helps, even make some notes to avoid going off track can help.
    6. As Mike mentioned the Blacks are slightly clipped, not a big issue here, but when applying Black, Contrast, Clarity etc use it with a light hand, ramping these sliders up may look nice, but they can chock/block your Mid tones and this is where a lot of your detail is and so more sharpening is required, creating a more 'contrasty/crunchy looking image, getting a happy balance will make for a good posting.

    Keep on shooing and getting out there, but ultimately having fun, enjoy the Z9.

    TFS
    Steve
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    Hi Steve,

    Thank you, I did not convert to sRGB before posting, will keep hat in mind.

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    Did some brief edits again and saved in sRGB, lowered saturation a touch.

    Name:  z hunting LE adjusted.jpg
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    BPN Member Dorian Anderson's Avatar
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    This pose is about as good as it gets, so kudos on that. The suffers from the same contrast/sharpening/crunchy issue as the previous, but it takes time to figure out how to best process images from a new body. I'm still figuring out the WB on my R5!

    I might pull back on the darks here; they feel kinda heavy and mask what is surely more feather detail underneath.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    it takes time to figure out how to best process images from a new body. I'm still figuring out the WB on my R5!
    Hi Dorian, providing you have a good and rational workflow, IMHO what brand of body you have is irrelevant. The way I process my Canon files is in the same way I would process Sony, Nikon & Olympus files I receive, these days there is very little to separate them if they are correctly exposed.

    Re R5 in camera set to Auto WB, Lr in the Dev module where it says Profile change to Adobe Standard then it's down to you where you go from there, but if you leave it to Adobe Color then you might as well shoot JPEG, sRGB and do not process anything, it creates 'pants' files!!! Changing the Profile does help the excessive input by Lr, but that's just the start...
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dorian Anderson View Post
    This pose is about as good as it gets, so kudos on that. The suffers from the same contrast/sharpening/crunchy issue as the previous, but it takes time to figure out how to best process images from a new body. I'm still figuring out the WB on my R5!

    I might pull back on the darks here; they feel kinda heavy and mask what is surely more feather detail underneath.
    Hi Dorian, thanks - just by "pulling back on the darks" would you mean going higher then on the blacks sliding scale, or lower?

    As I said hard to know how to process; I post on another forum and a similar image was the editor's choice of the day, and there are so many filters and plug ins now I tend to drive myself crazy staring at my screen. I appreciate the feedback though. Thanks! - Paul

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Fine pose but I feel the image is too heavy like your previous, i.e. too much contrast and colour and most likely underexposed at the capture. I would suggest download the raw file again, cancel all adjustments. Look at the histogram and work out what it is telling you then you will know where to go in terms of further adjustments. If you use ACR or LR you can place your cursor on the histogram and drag each section to the left or right, I am not suggesting this is good for making the actual adjustments but you will then know what happens if you lift darks, mid tones, or highlights.... and when clipping occurs.

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Kammen View Post
    As I said hard to know how to process; I post on another forum and a similar image was the editor's choice of the day, and there are so many filters and plug ins now I tend to drive myself crazy staring at my screen. I appreciate the feedback though. Thanks! - Paul
    Hi Paul ... a stunning capture for sure !!!
    To me it is just overprocessed on most counts .
    If captured " correctly " with the best possible SS for BIF and the focus locked the Z9 should deliver very good results .... that will stand the " high expectations " i.e. here on BPN . Not knowing how high are the expectations in the other forum you mentioned ...
    I think it is mostly operator errors during capture and/or post processing... that will result in not ideal output images .

    For me it would be no big difference if i would process Canon ,Nikon , Sony etc ....albeit they might differ slightly from the base image .

    In your reply to Dorian you said " there are so many filters and plugins " ... well who told you to use all of that " fancy stuff " ???

    Keep it simple in your workflow ( for the beginning ) .... stay away from those filters and/or plugins .
    Steve has given you a base direction and gave some very valuable pointers .... which i would follow , if i was you .

    Just my take , hope my thoughts does somehow help a bit .

    Enjoy the Z9 and the work with it ...

    TFS Andreas

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    [QUOTE=Andreas Liedmann;1267045]Hi Paul ... a stunning capture for sure !!!
    To me it is just overprocessed on most counts .
    If captured " correctly " with the best possible SS for BIF and the focus locked the Z9 should deliver very good results .... that will stand the " high expectations " i.e. here on BPN . Not knowing how high are the expectations in the other forum you mentioned ...
    I think it is mostly operator errors during capture and/or post processing... that will result in not ideal output images .

    Hi Andreas,
    Thank you - admittedly one thing I had always done was use "Adobe Color" or "Landscape" thinking it needed more punch, and have a tendancey to over-saturate at times. In this case with the setting sun the image was naturally warm.

    I went back to the RAW file and this time used Adobe Standard; not as aggressive on some of the plug ins, and adjusted mid tones more. This is a similar image from the fly by, but a bit less contrasty.

    I do take it seriously and appreciate the blunt comments; I compete in a local camera club known as the "mean" club in the sense they have higher standards than others in the area, but take this stuff very very seriously.

    Thanks, and here's another image processed a touch differently.

    Name:  z leo adjusted IV.jpg
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    Apologies, posted that too quickly, didn't mean to use sharpening touch up on the whole bird, and saved in Adobe 1998. Here is one last edit with just some minor touch up on the face which out of camera is pretty good too, again less saturation.

    Thanks for the input.

    Name:  zz leo flying.jpg
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Size:  446.4 KB

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    Thank you - admittedly one thing I had always done was use "Adobe Color" or "Landscape" thinking it needed more punch, and have a tendancey to over-saturate at times. In this case with the setting sun the image was naturally warm.

    I went back to the RAW file and this time used Adobe Standard; not as aggressive on some of the plug ins, and adjusted mid tones more. This is a similar image from the fly by, but a bit less contrasty.
    Hi Paul, I think you may have picked up on what I was saying to Dorian earlier. Lr puts a lot behind the scenes (adds contrast, sharpening etc as soon as you import the file into the Dev module which appears paunchy) and if you use Adobe Colour you just fall into their bear trap. Changing to Adobe Standard goes partially towards a better start, and as you say, makes for a less 'aggressive' look & feel but that's just the start as I say. Using Contrast later is basically another for of sharpening to a degree, hence why folk like it, so using Blacks, Contrast, Clarity etc, is best applied with a gentle hand.

    Interesting to see the last post, as this is where I came to with the OP of yours and guessing on colour etc.
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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Apologies, posted that too quickly, didn't mean to use sharpening touch up on the whole bird, and saved in Adobe 1998
    Paul, when ever you post an image from your 'Master file' after cropping, you must apply sharping to that file ie so you apply sharping to that final size ie 1920px wide. If you post another image elsewhere on another Social media platform, then again, you crop to that size ie 1600px and apply sharpening to that. Basically you sharpen at the last stage of PP. You need sRGB not RGB Adobe for posting. Hope this helps.

    Cheers
    Steve
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Paul, when ever you post an image from your 'Master file' after cropping, you must apply sharping to that file ie so you apply sharping to that final size ie 1920px wide. If you post another image elsewhere on another Social media platform, then again, you crop to that size ie 1600px and apply sharpening to that. Basically you sharpen at the last stage of PP. You need sRGB not RGB Adobe for posting. Hope this helps.

    Cheers
    Steve
    Hi Steve, thanks - I do always sharpen as the last stage, I'd just never converted files before to sRGB and left them as-is. I'll do that from now on, and as I said I had been always using Adobe Landscape or Color, never standard, which I'll do from now on too.

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    Hi Steve, thanks - I do always sharpen as the last stage, I'd just never converted files before to sRGB and left them as-is. I'll do that from now on, and as I said I had been always using Adobe Landscape or Color, never standard, which I'll do from now on too.
    Great, you are on beginning of the correct path Paul. Landscape is quite nice for snowy scenes, but again it's all dependent on the capture, but that's just the start, you then need to correct the White Balance (WB) and then drill down though the various modules, albeit that you do not need adjust ALL and every slider.
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Paul, this might be of help?

    Lr currently is only supporting Nikon Z9 to a 'degree' (whatever that might be) within the current programme which I assume you are using... '22? Now, there should be an update for Lr in the wings and I understand that should be this month, even around the 8th, but I don't know. Therefore, a current work around for your files is to use Nikon NX Studio. I have no idea how it works, but there is a substantial difference between files developed within Lr & NX Studio.

    This is the link I have been sent, hope this helps, however I assume you will need to couple it with PS too.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Hey Paul,

    First let me kay that you are a very lucky man with all of these owl flight opps! I agree that the lighter less saturated versions are an improvement over the too dark contrasty OPs.

    How are you separating the long-eareds from the short eareds in flight?

    with love, artie
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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    Paul, envious of your capture. Not only a LEO in flight, but a banger incoming shot with great light angle. Nice!!!

    I wouldn't change a whole lot personally. There might be some exaggerated magentas in the o.g. post but I know that's probably fairly indicative of the light at the time.

    Reducing the contrast through your post process would also really enhance it, but that comes from playing around with settings and how you add/leave contrast. If using LR, what color profile do you use?

    Name:  Screen Shot 2022-02-06 at 3.48.13 PM.png
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