Another shot of a Saw-whet Owl from last week. Considerable pp on this image. Removed a couple of oof branches in the fg. Adjusted the strong contrast caused by the back light with S/H, B/C and dodging. As well created a vignette with dodge tool to reduce bg brightness and put focus more on owl. Some minor sharpening.
Hi Joe - You have cut the poor fellows tail off - I am a subscriber to "if its worth including - its worth including all of it" Looks clipped rather than a deliberate cut - which is a entirely different matter.
Do include your full shooting info - helps everyone see whats going on.
Looks a tad soft on my screen - also a bit of a contrast boost might help also - looks a tad flat.
Like the pose and visible eye.
Hi Joe,
I agree with Mr. Peters on the tail...would suggest boosting the saturation and contrast just slightly and selective sharpen the eye...looking forward to more...:cool:
The PS work was worth it and would even go a little further since you have done so much ... try getting rid of the one branch going through its head !! You have a good one !!!
Joe, while I agree with the above critiques - it does have its issues - I think it's a worthwhile shot - certainly until you get a better one. That face with its large eye is precious! I don't even mind the slight softness, and didn't notice the cut off tail until I read the other comments. :D The image draws me right to the face. ;)
Sorry about not including the shooting info. Here it is.
5D Mark II
300mm 2.8
1.4TC
1/160 sec
f5.6
ISO 400
Unfortunately, I can't crop in the rest of the tail as it wasn't captured in the original shot. This is a full size portrait crop of a landscape oriented image. Actually, I didn't think of this when I was composing the shot as I was concentrating on the head.
Regarding sharpness, being this close to the subject at f5.6 and 420mm I was working with a very thin dof. I think the beak and eye are sharp but the near side of the head is already soft. I had boosted the contrast and saturation but lowered them for the posting as I had received comments on earlier shots that I had over processed them. Same with sharpening. With the feedback I'm getting at this site I'm a little unsure how much is enough but I'm sure with time I'll get it right. :):):)
Saw-whet Owl2
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