Great horned owl

[Ben Egbert]

Taken in Spokane Wa, Aug 1, 2009
50D 500f4+1.4X using a tripod and Sidekick
1/100 sec, ISO800, f6.3
Processed in ACR3

[Arthur Morris]

The great distance to the subject gave you adequate d-o-f. I like the bird and the SH. The EXP looks good. It is a bit too large in the frame for me. You might have had options to either move to your right and place the bird against the trunk or move to your left and eliminate the merge between the bird's back and the edge of the trunk. Love those eyes.

[Roy Priest]

I thought the image had a colour cast so I hope you don't mind but I gave it a go to try and eliminate it.

[Erich Stevens]

Ben,

A beautiful bird captured and great eye contact. Agree with Arthur, moving a bit to your left and you would've had a cleaner BG. Also, I think the owl's body has too much contrast to my eye, and perhaps over-sharpened a tad. Dunno, something seems a little off about it and I think that's it. But again perfect eye contact and your subject really pops off my monitor.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Roy, Nice job on the repost and spotting the color cast that I missed. Thanks for your help.

[Steve Large]

Hi Ben,
Nice clear shot as regards sharpness. I see judging by the plumage color (lots of orange), that this bird is a new fledgling this year. Only comment that I can see for improvement is the background which is a bit bright. However, I know how hard it can be from my own experience to get these guys in an open shot like this and a different background may not have been an option. I personally like my owls tighter in the frame such as the way that you have it presented here.
Judging by your posts I see you are new to BPN. Welcome aboard!

Steve

[Daniel Cadieux]

About the magenta cast, seeing that this is with the 50D you may want to follow the link found within this thread: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42324

Quite the mesmerizing stare with those big glossy eyes!!

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks for the redo. I will check this out at home.

[Ben Egbert]

Just have not been posting here, I joined in 2008, but was not ready for birds.

This owl is backlit, I moved but had a branch in the way. He flew to much better light and I got a series with much better exposure, but 700 was too long, and there was a branch in the way. I removed the extender and got some shots but he flew before I could repostion.

This was the best full clear body shot so I wanted to see if it could be salvaged for club competition.

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Artie: This is actually a crop, so I do have more to work with. Much of it is backlit with large areas of white blown out sky.

I did move to get the tree as background (the other way would have been horrible backlight). But there was a branch.

I have another series with the sun at my back and great light, but another branch intrudes. I was trying to save this because it was the only full body unobstructed shot and had the good eye contact.

[Harshad Barve]

lovely eyes and stare ,
all good points well covered here
TFS

[Roy Priest]

Hey Roy, Nice job on the repost and spotting the color cast that I missed. Thanks for your help.

Hey Artie, I get a lot of practice on my own images:D

[Ben Egbert]

Based on the previous replies, I took another image with better light and croped to eliminate most of the intruding branch (not all). I also worked at removing magenta cast. I have a hard time seeing this, and little experience with the technique of removing it. Suggestions and critque most welcome.

Being new here, I hope a new image in the original post is not a violation of the 24 hour rule.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Ben, The branch was a piece of cake for a QM. In the new post, note that the bird's nictititing membranes are slightly lowered.

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Artie, nice clone job, I will give it a go. Your version looks like it has more saturation, did you change it or am I just seeing something?

Edit:
By the way, I went back and cloned out the branch, you were right, took me about 10 minutes.