I was in Africa for the first time, on my first ever night drive, near the Tarangire National Forest. This Verreaux Eagle Owl swooped by us, then perched in a nearby acacia tree. He stopped in a “V” of branches, providing me a natural frame. He posed for a while, mostly looking away from us, but finally looked down at our spotlight.
Specific Feedback Requested
Please comment on the composition and processing. Feel free to offer any other tips you think would be helpful
Technical Details
Nikon D500 with Sigma 100-400 lens. Shot at 100 mm using 1/125, f/5, ISO 4000. Some processing in Lightroom, to increase the exposure, sharpen the owl and denoise. Cropped abut 1/3
Scott, we’ll see if an admin can move it to Avian Critiques so more bird fans see it. In the meantime, I’ll chime in…
You got a nice pose, with a good view of the trademark pink eyelids on this species, and also a good view of the eyes without having to worry about redeye.
The whites appear blown out, so I wonder if you’re able to bring down the Highlights or Whites in your RAW processing at all. Also, despite your use of DeNoise, you’re still getting a lot of noise in the dark surroundings. I’ve found that DeNoise does a decent job with that type of noise, but you may just need to bump the power a bit (using the Low Light or Severe Noise settings is usually best). If you find that this heavy treatment affects the owl details too much, you can always use the mask function in DN to exclude it.
@Scott_Francis - I moved this to the Avian Critique section rather than the Wildlife section.
I’m sure this was pretty exciting to see and with the constraints you had to work with, it worked out OK.
That said, the lighting looks completely unnatural, since it is. Owls are tough to photograph in their natural state.
I don’t want to start a debate, but I feel strongly about not using spotlights, flash or other light sources on owls at night as they are nocturnal hunters and even if this only was a few seconds (which I’m guessing it wasn’t), it did have a temporary affect on the owls ability to hunt. I fully understand this was on a tour and you didn’t personally use the spotlight. I just wish others wouldn’t do so.
Thanks Max. I didn’t see any of the clipping marks from blown whites, but I will look again. I appreciate your suggestions on processing. I’m still learning, and your comments are helpful
Thanks Keith. You are right, the guides did the lighting and it was more than a few seconds. Probably a minute or two. I never really thought about how it affected the owl’s hunting. The guides all claim to be animal conservationists, but no doubt they want happy customers too. Thanks for the feedback
