Night bird (Barn Owl)

[Paul Randall]

Barn Owl
Balliang, VIC, Australia
5/3/2011

In Australia, Barn Owls are nearly always nocturnal in habit. I never thought I'd be able to get close to this species until I found a group of 4 birds that were relatively localised within a small reserve.

All comments welcome Paul

Canon 5D 400mm f5.6 L iso 800 1/200th f13 manually set, 430ex speedlite
Photoshop- slight sharpen of features, cloned out some white wash

[Dumay de Boulle]

Lovely IQ and nice use of flash...These are my favorite owls. Great stuff

[Grace Scalzo]

Looks like a lovely painting. Excellent composition.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like it! Good placement of the subject within the frame, and the surrounding wood has alot of nice textures and character to it.

[Marina Scarr]

This is a killer Barn Owl image and you did a great job with your flash. Like the textures and colors of the bark on the tree. They really add a lot of interest, and make your owl pop.

The only thing I may consider if you decide to print this would be to try slightly dodging the part of the tree on which the owl is posing. It may be an improvement, it may not. Just a thought.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Paul, what I like the most here is the composition. Very well done. those textures make it very interesting.

[David Pugsley]

Great composition. The texture of the tree makes this come alive. Very well done.

[gail bisson]

WOW!
A beautiful image. The lines and texture of the tree are amazing. The owl is perfectly place within the frame. A wall hanger and a keeper. Love it,
Gail

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Amazing bird, comp, perch and flash work.
This image has a ton of character!

[Arno Ellmer]

This is a great capture,Paul.
The comp and the setting with the textured tree make this image .Well presented.

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image Paul. I like the composition, flash work, tree bark and IQ.

[Paul Randall]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Forgot to mention that I used a better beamer for this one as well. I think it may have been slightly misaimed and was shooting a bit high. This may account for the slightly darker look to the bottom half of the tree. Marina, your idea is a good one I think its addressed the problem Thank you

[Randy Stout]

Paul:

Lovely owl, well controlled flash, interesting trunk, well positioned main subject.

I prefer the original because the darker perch helps the bird stand out a bit more from the mass of the trunk. In the repost, I think the trunk looks too flat, little sense of depth. I might even try a version with the rest of the trunk just a bit darker to further help separate the bird from the BG.

Interesting of course how people see images differently.

Cheers

Randy

[Glenda Simmons]

Love it! Very different. The bark adds alot. The owl stands out, just enough, for my eyes, but at the same time blends in to camouflage, it well. I hope you frame this one.

[arash_hazeghi]

great shot it has a little bit of flash feel to it but everything else including habitat is very nice

[Ofer Levy]

Nice shot Paul. Here is a repost with some warming filter applied to address the "flash look" mentioned by Arash. Also converted to sRGB for web presentation.

[Paul Randall]

Repost is a little too warm for my tastes I think, thanks for taking the time. I don't mind the "flashed" look in night photos as it appears natural to me.