Papa Owl on Lookout

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

Revised Version
(I changed the crop to help eliminate the bright spots and where there were subtle bright spots I darkened them slightly. I did a little more, I think, deNoise in Topaz along with Topaz sharpen, also as before I darkened and desaturated the background)

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_AWD7772-200-201-202-2033544×2658 444 KB

Papa Owl on Lookout
Papa Owl on Lookout2765×3687 381 KB

The owl in this image is looking generally in the direction of his mate and two one week old owlets. I watched him for around and hour waiting for him to open his eyes. Finally he did so and he seem to have detected either a meal or a predator over my shoulder.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

I did basic global processing of this image in Adobe LR. Next, I transferred it to Photoshop where I created a selection of the bird and the background. For the bird I added a little brightness to the eyes and I used the tone curve to brighten the bird slightly. Next I darkened the background and desaturated it slightly. Finally, I used the Depth of Field Neural Filter to blur the background a little. My goal was to get the bird which naturally blends in very well with its background to stand out a little more, but hopefully not too much such that he didn’t look nature.

Technical Details

Camera: Canon R5
Lens: Canon EF 600mm F/4.0
ISO: 2500, f/6.3, shutter: 1/800, tripod, manual exposure

1 Like
2

Technical: Looks pretty well exposed, maybe a touch dark, but OK. Seems sharp enough

Aesthetic: The composition with the birds head centered in the frame doesn’t help the image. It left bright areas in the top to draw us there and cut off the feet (or virtual feet if they were not fully visible).

3

You have more patience than I with owls, but the wait was well worth it. Of course the viewer can’t know what may have been in the way, but I long for a composition with the camera aimed lower and to the left. If you don’t have the canvas there, I would crop like this, and bring up the exposure a bit.

I don’t know your processing, but there is some noise, and it can be dealt with so effectively these days. The JPEG shows a lot of compression which is lowering the overall IQ.

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_AWD7772-81-82-83-89-DM2630×2916 1.39 MB

4

I like this shot a lot. I agree with Diane’s suggestions. Cropped and popped nicely. Well done. I sure wish I had an available GHO to pose for me…

5

Very nice look at the owl. I like the work you did on the background-that neural filter is something I’ll need to take a look at. I think brightening the image, per @Diane_Miller , helps.

6

Thank you @Keith_Bauer , @Diane_Miller , @Dave_Douglass , and @Allen_Brooks for your comments/suggestions. I attempted to make an improved version above.
Regards;
Willem deGroot

1 Like
7

It came out nice. Well done.