Musical Owls

[Blake Cook]

Periodically one of the thirty or so owls at Boundary Bay would take flight and displace another owl from a preferred log. The displaced owl would find a spot on the beach logs or displace another owl...Musical Owls.

I'm stumped with this one. The "faces" of three complainers on the log are partially lit by the reflected light from the usurper's wings, which doesn't quite do it for the photo. Any improved lighting I could tried on them looked artificial. C&C&Suggestions very much appreciated.

[Dan Brown]

Beautiful! I'd love to get up there! A little bit more fill light would have been great here but what a great opportunity! Have you tried using fill light adjustment in ACR or selectively shadow and highlight in PS?

[Blake Cook]

Thanks for the great suggestion Dan. I tried fill light in LR again and added black to maintain the sense of early light. I'm not sure why I didn't like fill light on an earlier version.

[Dan Brown]

Thanks for the great suggestion Dan. I tried fill light in LR again and added black to maintain the sense of early light. I'm not sure why I didn't like fill light on an earlier version.

Great! glad to have helped!

[Blake Cook]

Dan, Here's the result. Much closer...

[Dan Brown]

The repost looks much better, Blake! Now, if you can reduce the noise in the BG and the dark shadows of the stump, IMO you will have it dialed in nicely! BTW, you didn't include any techs on what camera/lens/shutter speed etc? It would be interesting to see!

[Blake Cook]

The repost looks much better, Blake! Now, if you can reduce the noise in the BG and the dark shadows of the stump, IMO you will have it dialed in nicely! BTW, you didn't include any techs on what camera/lens/shutter speed etc? It would be interesting to see!

1D4, 600mm f/4 IS, ISO400, f/5.6, 1/640, -1.7EV, AV Mode, Centre Weighted

Hmm.. at 1040 res. I didn't really pay much attention to the noise and I thought the dark log end concentrated focus on the birds. All new thoughts to me.

[Dan Brown]

1D4, 600mm f/4 IS, ISO400, f/5.6, 1/640, -1.7EV, AV Mode, Centre Weighted

Hmm.. at 1040 res. I didn't really pay much attention to the noise and I thought the dark log end concentrated focus on the birds. All new thoughts to me.

Actually, on second look, the dark area of the log looks ok, but I can see noise in the bg that you can smooth out with NR software like Topaz Denoise or Noiseware Pro.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Blake, wonderful setting with the sweet light and warm colours. Most of us would wish for just one Snowy, and you have four.( no chance of any Snowy's here in SA. ) Good incoming pose from the snowy on the left, and I like that the other three have open beaks. Your repost is going in the right direction, and Im wondering why you went with such a negative EC. Always better to reduce highlights than recovering shadows.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Blake I like your shot very much, it would appear you are in a photographer's paradise. I think your re work is excellent. I am really looking forward to more snowy owl shots.

[Geir Jensen]

Repost is a killer

Best regard Geir Jensen

[Craig Kerr]

A wonderful image of these four owls, lighting a challenge !!

[Blake Cook]

Hi Blake, wonderful setting with the sweet light and warm colours. Most of us would wish for just one Snowy, and you have four.( no chance of any Snowy's here in SA. ) Good incoming pose from the snowy on the left, and I like that the other three have open beaks. Your repost is going in the right direction, and Im wondering why you went with such a negative EC. Always better to reduce highlights than recovering shadows.

Thanks Stuart. There were about a dozen birds around me at less than ~80m with the ones it was shooting looking directly into the morning sun behind me. I needed the -1.7 ev for those to avoid a complete blowout of their faces. This shot occurred as one bird decided to invade another log ~90deg from the sun. I didn't even try to change ev while the bird was in flight.

I don't shoot birds often and always seem to be fighting blown whites. I was erring on the side of caution here since I was working in relatively low ISO ranges.

In all I counted 31 Snowys I could see within about 500m. We passed a grove of trees about 1km down the road from the beach with 6 bald eagles perched. Busy place and not even a bird preserve.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice landing, great to get three I wish the fourth one was landing towards us, looks like the original was underexposed since as presented image is quite dark and lacks some fine details. For brightness adjustment it is best to use histogram. TFS, very nice species

[Blake Cook]

very nice landing, great to get three I wish the fourth one was landing towards us, looks like the original was underexposed since as presented image is quite dark and lacks some fine details. For brightness adjustment it is best to use histogram. TFS, very nice species

I chose to maintain it as somewhat dark as it seemed to suit the mood of the early morning. I do agree that it lacks detail, but I selected the image for its bird dynamics and character. The unedited image is quite soft and barely stands 1024 resolution.