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Thread: Colorful GHO

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    Default Colorful GHO

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    Hi Everyone,
    Hope you are having a great weekend. It has been quite busy here in Nanaimo with owls lately. Don't know if it is that I hadn't tried to photograph them as diligently as I have this summer or what. Here is one of many of a family of GHO's taken in Neck Point Park just a couple of miles from home.

    Canon 20D
    (Full frame - no crop)
    500 F/4 lens with 1.4X
    1/3 sec at f11, 400 ISO
    Wimberly with cable release

    Thanks for looking,

    Steve Large

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Hi Steve. Love the eye contact and pose here. The image is a little soft, due entirely to the shutter speed you used. The combination of using f/8 and ISO 800 would have given you a substantially faster shutter speed, which although still slow, probably would have sharpened things up. Here's a repost with some additional sharpening. I also lightened the irises a bit and cloned out the bright branch in the LLC. What do you think?
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    Nice image Steve. Cool pose and good eye contact. Agree with more sharpening, great rework Doug

    Dan

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    Hi Doug,
    The extra sharpening did make a big difference on the detail. However, I think that I would have left the brightness where it was as it tends to make the re-worked image look a bit washed out. As for the ISO, running the 20D a whole lot more than ISO 400 has never given me good results, at least in this case, is not practical because of the high noise that it would introduce.

    Still saving up for my EOS 1 with all the new technology including 14 bit and better noise filtering. Until then I am stuck at low ISO settings.

    Thanks for your work on this,

    Steve

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    Nice to have a cooperative GHO!! 1/3 sec? I would rather use higher ISOs and introduce a bit of correctable noise rather than compromising sharpness with such low shutter speeds (although Doug's repost has really sharpened things up nicely).

    My biggest problem with this image is the colour cast. In Levels I set the balck point on the pupil...this got rid of the cast on the owl. I still thought the BG had too much yellow in it so I selected the eyes and inversed the selection (as I did not want to reduce the yellows in them) and desaturated a good 20 points on the yellow channel. BTW did you take some images without the 1.4 too give more room around the owl (for cropping purposes)??


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    Hey Steve very nice shot .

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    Very nice image Steve!
    I like Doug's and Daniel's versions, but I prefer the light on the BG from the original post. May be selecting light on the bird is fine. IMO

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    Hi Juan,
    Thanks for the compliment. I think that I now prefer Daniel's tone correction on the owl itself but would still like to see a bit more saturation in the background colors.

    Steve

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    Quote Originally Posted by William Currie View Post
    Hey Steve very nice shot .
    Hi Brad,
    Long time no talk to. Have you been out owling lately? Lots of stuff out there locally right now. Hope to bump into you in the field sometime.

    Steve

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    Great looking owl--I do think I prefer Daniel's rendition here. Love the look--good angle and perch, too.

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    Another vote to Daniel's re-work. Also felt that some room around the owl might help.

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    Nice image here Steve. I like Dan's re-work and personally I might have left more room for the owl in the frame. It seems a touch crowded on the top and bottom.

    That being said I love Neck Point (and Pipers Lagoon) and I can't wait to get back out there when I next visit Naanimo.

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    Nice eyes. I will go with Danny's repost. Can't believe what you got at 1/3rd sec, even with cable release. I agree with you regarding the noise. Good luck for your 1 series.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Stephen Stephen View Post
    Nice image here Steve. I like Dan's re-work and personally I might have left more room for the owl in the frame. It seems a touch crowded on the top and bottom.

    That being said I love Neck Point (and Pipers Lagoon) and I can't wait to get back out there when I next visit Naanimo.
    Hi Stephen,
    Thanks for commenting on my photo. I will try for a wider open shot tonight after work. If you are ever out here in the Winter we can chase Short-Eard Owls on the Nanaimo river estuary.

    Take care,

    Steve

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sabyasachi Patra View Post
    Nice eyes. I will go with Danny's repost. Can't believe what you got at 1/3rd sec, even with cable release. I agree with you regarding the noise. Good luck for your 1 series.
    Hello Sabyasachi,
    Nice to have an international visitor to my thread. Thanks for your comments. As you can imagine I had to take many poor photos to get a few good ones at that speed. I will take Doug Brown's advice tonight and try 800 ISO to get a faster shutter speed. Still a bit cautious of noise on the 20D at that setting but I guess you never know if you don't try.

    Take care,

    Steve

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Steve, I've owned the 20D, 30D, and 40D so I know what kind of noise levels you get at ISO 800. While there's no question that you get noise at ISO 800, I find it totally manageable in post-processing. You have to be careful to not underexpose when shooting at higher ISOs. As a rule, I'll always accept a little noise in order to get the necessary shutter speed. I understand that some photographers are real sticklers for noise, but I'm not one of them. Also, don't forget aperture. Shooting at f/5.6 would have given you 2 stops of light; that would likely have given you enough DOF to get the owl in focus in a front-facing pose and allowed you to shoot 2 stops faster. BTW I think this is an excellent discussion!
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    Hey Steve,
    I love these guys and you've got a nice one here. As others have said, don't be afraid to push the ISO on the 20D. Since these guys don't come out during th egolden hour I've had to take quite a few pics well after sunset and in the woods. Here's a 100% view of an unprocessed shot at f6.3, 1/13s, ISO 1600 from the 20D. Cleaned up nice enough with basic PS NR to make a nice 11x14 print.

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    Thanks Steve,
    I was out tonight with William (Brad) Currie at Neck Point Park again here in Nanaimo. I listened to Doug Brown and got some pictures using 800 ISO with the 20D. Here are the results. Hope the noise is not too high on this one. Taken at 1/60 sec F/8. Basic noise reduction used in Neat Image and some color correction in Photoshop.

    Thanks for your comments,

    Steve L.

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    BPN Viewer Steve Canuel's Avatar
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    Nice look back pose and curvy perch. Some may comment on the size of the tree trunk but because it is in line with the owl, it doesn't detract from my eye. There appears to be some funky stuff going on with the edges of the BG trees/branches but noise is nonexistant.
    Steve C.

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    I don't see any appreciable noise here Steve. Agree about the BG looking a little funny. I hope you're pleased with the results, and I'm glad you were willing to give my advice a try.
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    I would kill to see on this owls ;-)
    Love those eyes and feathers!

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