This was in a rotted out branch of a gnarled tree trunk recently. I took the picture at dusk, with fill flash. I have showed it to a number of people (including bird photographers) who really like it, but I am not happy with it - and I'm not sure why. It's a fairly close crop, as there was a lot of oof stuff around the edges in the original, and I'm not sure whether the bg is too distracting or not distracting enough. I have also reduced noise considerably, but the adult owl's face doesn't look quite right. I suspect that my having to use a very high ISO to keep the shutter speed reasonable has something to do with it. The flash was SB600 but without a Better Beamer. I bracketed several images, and this one was the least unacceptable. I would therefore welcome any c & c and further suggestions (other than winding back the clock and re-taking it!) for this image from BPN - the people that really help!.
Richard
Camera Model: NIKON D300
Nikon 300 F/4 +1.7TC, tripod and Jobu gimbal head
Focus Distance: 10m
Aperture: f/6.7
Exposure Time: 0.017 s (1/60)
ISO equiv: 2500
Exposure Bias: +0.33 EV
Metering Mode: Spot
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: Yes (Manual, return light detected)
Color Space: sRGB
Comment: Copyright R.Stern
Great find, and I'd be pleased were it mine. It does seem to have a bit of noise and slight softness on the birds, maybe from brightening it as Peter suggests. It also looks as if the focus point might have been on the foreground tree or feathers rather than on the bird's face.
I love seeing the owls and am interested to read the other suggestions.
Only one I have is possibly cleaning up the eyes - the owlet's eyes look too bright, and I think the extra catchlight from the flash looks unrealistic.
It looks like the conditions were very difficult and tricky, and you came away with a photo that is very nice, if not as perfect as you'd like it to be.
Hi Richard - Not sure about the use of spot metering??
ISO 2500 on the D300 is going to be a little noisy - pushing the histogram as far to the right as possible without any overexposure is going to be the key to keeping the noise at a minimum.
Your exposure should be correct - before adding the flash to the mix - if the flash does not fire the ambient exposure should still be correct.
Here's the original, exported from the .nef (raw) file with no pp except downsizing to 1024 pixels. I don't know why there was such a green cast - auto-wb and raw. Not usually a problem with the D300. Maybe reflection from the green of the surounding tree. I think the spot-metering was a mistake - I forgot to reset to matrix metering, but I think the spot would have metered off Mom owl's face.
If I had a chance for this image over again, I think I would have used a much lower ISO and accepted a lower shutter speed, using the tripod.
Hi Richard Good point by Peter and Lance regarding exposure .. if you had to lighten any will introduce noise, remember the one posted by Lance as a work image from a D3s .. had noise !!!
For most high ISO images you need to boost contrast since they tend to look kind of flat, for this you might want to add black & neutral in the selective color, seems to give it a punch without looking strange.
I think you did well with this one and its a keeper.... btw as presented take a little form the top !!! ..if you run into the same/similar situation would try a much lower ISO and go with the slow shutter speed .. have no branches moving and the birds hardly move either !!
Hi Richard - under exposed as AL mentioned - I also wonder if the focus point was not on the head/eye area - front wing looks a little sharper - could just be my eyes though.
:)
Barred owl Mom and chick
