Portrait of a Burrowing Owl

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

Taken at Brian Piccolo Park, Cooper City, FL.

Techs:

Canon EOS 50D, f/8, 1/2000sec, ISO 400, 0 step, 400mm, Pattern,
No Flash, Manual.

[John Chardine]

Hi Oscar- This is potentially an interesting image but it needs some processing work to bring it out. The direct "look" and eye contact are good. For a portrait you could have cropped even tighter with less room above. The main issue here is that on my calibrated monitor the image looks very dark and has a curious green/yellow colour cast. Here I brightened up the image with the middle slider of Levels (in Photoshop), ran colour correction in LAB colour and boosted the saturation and contrast a little. Have a go and see if you can bring the image back.

[annmpacheco]

Hi Oscar, what a terrific portrait of this guy. I like the DOF and agree with John's suggestions and redo. Do you see this owl often or did you get "surprised?" TFS, ann

[Peter Farrell]

I love the sleepy stare on this owl. I agree with John's assesment and like his re-post. I might be tempted to clone out the black line on the Owl's right pupil.
Peter

Please comment on my images; I need all the help I can get

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

Hi Oscar, what a terrific portrait of this guy. I like the DOF and agree with John's suggestions and redo. Do you see this owl often or did you get "surprised?" TFS, ann

Hi Ann, there are quite a few burrows in the park. You go from one burrow to the other and depending on the light and the owls to shoot away. They all look that way. Very intense
and protective of their space. If you come too close they either hide in the burrow or fly away around 20 - 30 feet leaving the juvenile in the burrow. Interesting birds to be sure!

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

I love the sleepy stare on this owl. I agree with John's assesment and like his re-post. I might be tempted to clone out the black line on the Owl's right pupil.
Peter

Please comment on my images; I need all the help I can get

Hi Peter, thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep in mind for next time.

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

Hi Oscar- This is potentially an interesting image but it needs some processing work to bring it out. The direct "look" and eye contact are good. For a portrait you could have cropped even tighter with less room above. The main issue here is that on my calibrated monitor the image looks very dark and has a curious green/yellow colour cast. Here I brightened up the image with the middle slider of Levels (in Photoshop), ran colour correction in LAB colour and boosted the saturation and contrast a little. Have a go and see if you can bring the image back.

Hi John, nice repost. The image was a bit rich by choice; however, your re-post provided with another alternative. I do not know how I got the green/yellow colour cast.
Could this be caused by a miscalculation of white balance?

Thanks a lot!

[John Chardine]

Oscar- In RAW, everything is up for grabs including white balance and overall cast. You have the Temperature and Tint sliders in ACR which you set, although a starting point is provided, I think based on the WB you have set in camera. For your image I just tried adjusting the colour and cast with these two sliders and it worked great without having to resort to LAB colour. I dialed in -10 (Temp) and +30 (Tint) and I think it worked batter than LAB.