Here is a female Northern Spotted Owl, taken in Washington. It's a treat to see this declining subspecies up so close. It's hard to get clean backgrounds much of the time, but I'll take what I can get with this bird.
Postprocessing:
Usual sliders, sharpening to bird, NR and 1.5-pixel Gaussian Blur to background, removal of one of the more distracting sticks in BG, burning on some BG highlights.
Tech:
Nikon D7100
Nikkor AF-S 300 mm f4D
ISO 2000
1/160
f/4
handheld
Nice subject to photograph Walker, and I like the jaunty angle of the head. Not sure how much you can push the ISO, but 1/160 seems a bit low for HH, but I guess also from the DoF light was of a premium.
Overall I find the image too contrasty and rather crunchy, Blacks/Contrast/Shadows appear pushed and so the sharpening just amplifies things and any nice detail is lost. Those gorgeous eyes are dark are almost boarding on 'blocked/choked' and so any fine detail again is lost, but there is detail and form in there which will bring life back to the eyes. Is this a big crop or FF?
Walker I would, if you have the time, revisit the Raw, don't push the Blacks, Contrast, Clarity and reduce the Whites & Highlights here, it's all about balancing, you will then start to get more from the file, although I'm having to make assumptions here based on the posting. The attached RP is less than perfect, but it may illustrate my points taking your OP, but extremely limited to how far I can go, but the RAW should provide you with all you need. Make sure you also use the ETTR method for exposure, in that way you will maximise the data captured, have a better file to work with and less PP spent.
Another amazing owl shot, Walker. Especially good to get this species up close and in the open. Good advice from Steve; definitely worth revisiting to make the most of this great opportunity. I also love the touch of blood on the beak. I don't know how much of a crop this is, but for my personal taste it's just a bit large in the frame.
Beautiful sighting Walker. I like the pose perch and blood on the beak as well. You've gotten some great advice above, and I can only echo it with Steve's RP being a good step. A lot of really nice potential in this shot, just some minor tweaks to send it over the top. TFS
Great species to get an image of.
I hate to repeat what has been said already but Steve has nailed the issues with this image.
Looking forward to seeing a repost,
Gail
Walker you are killing it with the owl shots!!! Another fine shot of an extremely hard bird to see. I much prefer the original post for the bird. I would lift the mid tones a touch being very careful not to make the bird look thin and hazy. Softening the background as in the repost is fine.