Portrait shot of a GGOW

[Karl Egressy]

This handsome guy deserved a close up shot.
I had no problem going relatively close as it was right along a HW where trucks and cars were going by him/her.
I noticed that the original PP did not serve him/her justice.
I then in the re-doing process I separated the Owl, and created a layer for the bird and one for the background.
I linear burned the bird except the eyes and linear dodget the background. Now he/she stands out very nicely.
I hope you like it.

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Manual Exposure
Tv 1/800
Av 4.0
Spot Metering
ISO 640
Lens EF300mm f/2.8L IS USM

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

I like this a lot Karl. So full of character...thats the thing with owls. loved the pose, BG, comp and terrific details. Well done. My personal preference would be to have the bird a tad more to the right in the frame...and may be a bit higher to include more body.

[Yves Guillot]

Very nice protrait Karl! I am not sure how you did your post processing though : I am not familiatr with these manoeuvers. Could you explain them a little bit more?
The whites near the beak could have more details : easy to do by lowering the curves in a mask.

Very well done! congrats!

[Carmelo Cannova]

Excellent portrait Karl. Love those eyes and the BG is terrific. Well done!!!

Carmelo

[Jim Crosswell]

Nice image Karl! I like the details, eyes and pose. I would blend the darker oval spot in the BG over the left eye. When was the last time you saw the owl down here?

[v.p.nurdeen]

Hi Karl,
Beautiful image and superb PP. I feel I can stretch my hand out and touch him on my monitor :-)
VPN

[Robert Holguin]

Wow!!! Love this portrait. Love the look the look it has and superb detail, lovely background too.
Well done.

[Mital Patel]

fantastic portrait shot. Kaustubh have made a nice point to move the bird a bit right.

[arash_hazeghi]

great pose and eye contact, nice BG. I'd either move the bird slightly to the right or go vert here

[gail bisson]

A lovely portrait. Agree with moving him to the right. Great detail. Is the owl still in Kingsville ?
Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Thank you all.
I tried to answer with Quote, it did not work. Jim and Gail: I was down on 11th of January, which was a Wednesday.
It showed up on Saturday for an hour and then disappeared, probably moved on after almost twenty days.
Yves, the PP steps are well describen in Arthur Morris' PDF book: Digital Basics that you can order for $ 25.00 from his website.
Also a good source is: Photoshop for Nature Photographers by Ellen Anon and Tim Grey.
You can buy it from Amazon for less than $ 20.00

[Yves Guillot]

«Yves, the PP steps are well describen in Arthur Morris' PDF book: Digital Basics that you can order for $ 25.00 from his website.»

Thanks Karl! I already have it and will take a look to this technique.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Wow, it's always nice to have cooperative birds - but to have a hotshot specie like this cooperating must take some serious good karma :)
Lovely portrait, fantastic bg - excellent job.
+1 to moving him to the right if possible.

[ramesh anantharaman]

Brilliant Portrait Karl. I love the work on the BG here