Northern Hawk Owl

[Desmond Chan]

The original has some color cast and so thought in b&w, that color-cast would just disappear :). The subject was back-lit.

200-400 on D300. Manual exposure mode. All natural light. ISO 800 f7.1 1/400s hand-held. Cloned out some of the branches. Slight crop. Enhanced the contrast. Some blown rim-light situation here but I think it just reflects more truly the situation - afternoon sunlight coming from behind about 11 o'clock position from the camera - when the photo was taken.

Thank you for looking !!

[Ben_Sadd]

Interesting Desmond.

In B&W I think you could push the contrast even a little more

It would be nice to see the original too.

[Doug Brown]

I like what you did here Desmond, but I'm a sucker for those yellow eyes. How would it look if you brought those back?

[Desmond Chan]

In B&W I think you could push the contrast even a little more

Most of the time people prefer high contrast black and white photo. Perhaps it's not that difficult to understand because our eyes see high contrast images/subject easier. For this one, I think I could darken some of the feathers a bit more, but I would rather not brighten the face too much as those feathers are not white to begin with. And they were in the shadow to begin with. Besides, I thought the background was bright enough? :)

It would be nice to see the original too.

The problem with the original is that the face of the owl has a blue cast. I've tried to correct it but wasn't happy with the results.

Thank your for the comments !

[Desmond Chan]

I like what you did here Desmond, but I'm a sucker for those yellow eyes. How would it look if you brought those back?

The yellow in the original is pretty slight to begin with (after some attempt to correct the blue-cast primarily on the front of the owl) :

[Julie Kenward]

Desmond, I applaud you trying a black and white conversion but I would challenge you to also go back to the original and correct the color cast - it's great practice!

I would rework this in a different manner - keep in mind these are just my thoughts and not your vision so take it or leave it...

I'd go black and white, add a sepia tone or duotone of browns to add the additional contrast to the feathers and then I'd paint in the yellow eyes and beak as you have done in the repost. I think the browns would add the depth without adding too much contrast but I also feel the blacks are missing here so a little more contrast wouldn't be a bad thing. I'd also clone out the second branch as it has no purpose being in the image and I'd go with a vertical crop since there is nothing to the side of the bird for the viewer to look at.

Just my thoughts...