Boreal Owl

[Joe Brown]

5D Mk II
300mm 2.8
1/80 sec, ISO 400, f5.6
cropped, s/h, b/c, smart sharpened, dodged eyes to brighten yellows
Wished I had shot at higher ISO to get faster ss.

Comments welcome

Joe

[Anand Kavalapara]

Nice capture for a backlit subject. A bit more contrast and saturation to the image will make it better IMO

[Colin Knight]

Hi Joe!

As you stated, there should be no reservations with pushing that ISO up several stops with the MKII. You did very well for 1/80 sec though, though a bit more sharpness would help.

The background is distracting, but sometimes it's all you can do with owls, they stay so well hidden!

Thanks for posting!

[Lance Peters]

Hi jOE - Like the eye contact - would consider lightening and sharpening the eyes a tad. Feels a little tight all round to me - though do understand you were probably trying to minimise the BG clutter.
Some fill flash might have been useful here - not much just enough to add just a touch of life to the eyes.
Agree with a higher ISO to increase the SS.
TFS

[Joe Brown]

Thanks everyone for your comments. This is full portrait crop of a landscape image. We were so close to this owl that I had trouble getting the whole owl in the shot, top to bottom, with the 300mm.
I have lightened the image a little. With owls and being so close I would much prefer use software to lighten the eyes.



Joe