two owls

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

D700
70-200mm f2.8 VR with 1.7TC
340mm
ISO 1600
f7.1 at 1/200s
Manual mode
Auto white balance
handheld

Lighten image a bit, ligten right eyes (both owls), saturate the eyes, heavy crop, noise reduction and sharpen a bit.

The image does look soft but more sharpen will bring out more noise, should have expose more to the right. Taken at the last light of day, probably will bring tripod along next time. Can burrowing owls have nest up in the tree and not underground? These guys make a nest up in the tree.

Also for image like this, should I move the birds off center?

All comments and suggestions are welcome.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Love this shot, maybe open up a bit to boost shutter next time if you can with TC. Have you tried high-pass sharpening a great techniques to sharpen w/o halos. I love the frame within a frame concept, nice composition. This is a great picture by any standard, I hope someday to capture one like this - well done. Maybe you can use clone tool and remove little branch at 45 angle that hits them both (distracting). Killer shot!!!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Thanaboon

The image seems a little soft from the low shutter speed and no tripod, sharpening is not going to take care. In this case shooting wide open would have helped, first priority is having a sharp image. Quality wise your lens will perform well wide open !!!

Mounting on a tripod would the best and you should be able to approach the birds fairly close, just move slowly and watch for any reactions. If they are not comfortable stop and wait.

Exposure wise you want to have data on the last box to the right, any under exposure will bring noise when you open up in PS. Composition wise looks just fine with the little guys in the center .... never seen them up in a tree Neat !!! ... would also try fill flash !!!

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

High-pass sharpening, never heard of it before, I'll look it up. Thank you all for the comments, I'll try them next time hopefully they will be still be there when I go back, quite far away from where I live.

[Connie Mier]

To add to the above, I do think the centering of the birds works well right where you placed them.

[Kyle Marie Barcelos]

I have to agree with Jeff and Alfred with this one, but it is a good find and love the intensity of the owls look. And I'm guessing the one with the orange eyes is a juvenile? Great job:)

[Christopher Miller]

Very nice, Thanaboon. Agree with Jeff and Al's fine advice. Great eye contact!

[Lance Peters]

AL Nailied it- Love those eyes and the composition works for me.
Hope you get some more chances with these guys :)

[Bob Miller]

HI Thanaboon....I like your composition and although it could be sharper if you go with Al's advice on aperture and shutter, I think it is a strong enough an image to like just as is.

[Ron Boisvert]

Hi Thanaboon,
You've been given great advice on this image so I'll only add that I have learned to carry my tripod almost everywhere my camera goes because of encountering situations just like this where I have regretted not having it. For me, I have too many regrets about the one that got away. Ditto on the flash. You have a memorable image here and I hope you get the chance to have another go at these guys. Thanks for posting this image.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Thanaboon,
I do like the capture, your subjects are placed right in frame...the techs. have been given along with some very good advise, just keep them coming...:cool:

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice composition and pose, I am not sure about sharpness, detail might still be there, if you still have the NEF files shoot them and I will give it a try, I think you can recover some detail in the feathers :)

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very nice shot. Think high pass sharpening is worth a try. Pretty easy to do.

[Declan Troy]

Hey Thanaboon,

My guess is that these are Spotted Owlets (Athene brama). These guys do nest in tree cavities.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Very nice composition and pose, I am not sure about sharpness, detail might still be there, if you still have the NEF files shoot them and I will give it a try, I think you can recover some detail in the feathers :)

Here is the link
file name: DSC_8870.NEF
size: 14.7MB
http://www.megafileupload.com/en/fil...-8770-NEF.html

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Hey Thanaboon,

My guess is that these are Spotted Owlets (Athene brama). These guys do nest in tree cavities.

So that is what they are called, been wondering for a while. Thank you.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Thanaboom,
I looked at your NEF file, sharpness is actually OK, the problem is the bird is tiny in the frame



100% actually has OK sharpness given the SS and the light



so you have to resize and crop a bit wider to make it look good



You needed a 400mm or longer for this shot, nice anyway :)

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Arh, really sorry Arash I meant to send you the file DSC_8870, but instead it was DSC_8770. My bad.

DSC_8770 was shot at iso 640 while DSC_8870 was shot at iso 1600 so noise is a bit different, and I agree I need a longer focal lens for this type of shots. That or getting really close.