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Thread: Short Eared Owl In Snow

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    Default Short Eared Owl In Snow

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    As the weather has been rather horrible here lately and it appears that all of all early winter raptors have settled to the south a bit, I'm going back and processing some images I've not done previously.

    This particular image is similar to another but a bit slightly different.

    This was created on a heavily overcast day early in the morning and after a newly fallen March snow the night before. It was difficult to balance the EV in order not to blow the snow (as it is the snow is hot and I had to tone it down) and still get enough light on the subject.

    Nikon D2X handheld, 200-400 AFSVR, TC14EII, ISO 500, f 7.1, 1/200, CW metering, +.7 EV compensation

  2. #2
    Maxis Gamez
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    Hi Jim,

    Good to have you around. Great eye contact and habitat. I also like the eye level.

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    Default Hi Maxis

    The full time job has been occupying me, basically trying to stay employed!

    Weather has been horrible, birds have been largely absent, I'm not going to be able to afford to get to Florida this winter....

    Soooo....I'm working through tons of old images to see if I can make some money :)

  4. #4
    Maxis Gamez
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    I hear you!!

    Good luck!

  5. #5
    Dave Courtenay
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    Nice relaxed looking owl-one of my favorite owls-and to get one in the snow-well a dream come true

    Dave

  6. #6
    Malcolm Benn
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    Beautiful setting ... great shot.

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    Wow, a gorgeous individual you got here! Nice comp, and wondeful winter setting. I detect a reddish cast...see if my repost is an improvement. I've set the white and black points in levels and this is what I came up with:


  8. #8
    Axel Hildebrandt
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    Great find, details and BG. The repost looks better on my monitor. Good luck with the job!

  9. #9
    bill kominsky
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    The re-post from Daniel is spectacular, the original is also very good.

    Bill

  10. #10
    Glenda Simmons
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    Looks like an Audubon magazine image! Love the habitat included in the composition. Hope you get some warmer weather, soon.

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Excellent stuff Jim! Love the setting and the eye contact. Agree about the reddish cast, but I still see one with the repost by Daniel. Here's another repost that tries to banish the red cast entirely.
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    Geez...I wake up and you folks have managed to get rid of that darned cast that I couldn't!

    I understand what Daniel did but Doug if you would be so kind...you banished it via what method?

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    I actually did the same thing Daniel did; a Levels adjustment. I zoomed in to the pixel level and picked the whitest pixel I could find, and then I repeated the process with the blackest pixel.
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    Axel Hildebrandt
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    Great job, Doug! This made it even better.

  15. #15
    Tony House
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    Lovely work, one of my favourite Owls. Great pose and eye contact, love the natural setting too.. 3rd repost looks great.

    Tony

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    Very nice image in complimentary habitat. Beautiful work. The repost by Doug nailed the contrast and color.

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    Doug....

    Sincere thanks.

    I'll play with iit over the weekend and hopefully I can get to where you got :)

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    Fan! Tastic!
    Love the BG, detail, light and colurs! Congratualions!

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    BPN Member Tony Whitehead's Avatar
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    This is really lovely, Jim. Reposts are the icing on the cake. Love the warm colours and soft textures of the owl. The OOF pine needles make a great BG. Needles, cones and snow on perch are great. Good job.
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    This one is really beautiful Jim. I love the habitat it's in and the snow just makes it special. Nice work.

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    Jim,
    Fantastic shot! I have been trying since mid November to get a shot of our local short ears like this. Just can't seem to get as close as last year. Very good sharpness and feather detail. Short ears are my favorite owl for sure. By the way, my vote is on Doug Brown's repost. Seems that his colors match what I recall as being a more natural tone for the bird.

    Steve Large

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    BPN Viewer Charles Glatzer's Avatar
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    Jim,


    Killer Image!!!!

    There are easy two ways to negate an overall cast.

    1- Ctrl J the background, go to Filter > Blur > AVERAGE. next invert the cast color Ctrl I, change the layer blend mode to Color and use the opacity slider to negate cast. Usually around 10% will work well.

    2 - Use a Selective Color Adjustment layer picking the color of the cast (red in this case) use complimentary color slider to negate the cast (cyan in this case), with some colors you will need to use the same color slider to negate the color. The advantage is that you can negate a color without having to introduce another, as when using levels/curves. Moreover, you can lighten/darken individual colors with the black component of the color...it is best to change the layer blending mode to Luminosity for this adjustment.

    Warmest Regards,

    Chas
    Last edited by Charles Glatzer; 12-27-2008 at 01:09 PM.

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