While half of the thousand or so species we saw in Costa Rica were at various feeding stations, the other half were in the wild. The eco-guides have a network in which they notify each other of the locations of sightings of different species. So our itinerary while partially scripted was also on-the-fly and we went where the species had been seen. Such is the case with the Spectacled Owl in this image. This was a real exposure challenge with the dark canopy invaded by holes between the leaves reviewing a very bright cloudy sky. One could not use a flash with this owl.
Iso-2000, 100-400 at 400 mm F7 .1, 125th, handheld, no flash, 65% of full frame. Sony A7 R3
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An excellent take on this guy, David. All that lush greenery of the canopy really sets the bird off nicely.
What an awesome shot, perfect composition and nice light. When looking at the bigger version of the image, I notice the image quality on the face is not quite like your usual shots. Is it because of lifting up shadows, David? I would imagine sharpness similar to the feathers around the talons.
Adhika:
It is just real dark under the canopy. And dark plumage without good light leads to more noise. This was a cloudy day with silver skies; dark clouds moving across the sky and decreasing the light from time to time. So real exposure challenges. Plus I was using a new and unfamiliar camera and lens setup. I shot at least 50images of this guy so I will look at others to see if there is any improvement in the noise issue.
Neat looking owl with good detail and in a nice setting. Wondering about a slight crop on the left to de-center the owl?
An excellent job of exposure against that back lit canopy, David. Amazing that you found an angle that got it backed almost completely with foliage-that’s really neat. Great job.
David, on a second thought, I have seen similar thing when using AI Clear. One section will come out sharp and a slice next to it which is supposed to be in the same focus plane comes out soft. Where I see a trace of it here may be the left and the right white eyelashes and the chest. I mentioned about this in one of my falcon shots about struggling to remove noise. In some images, AI Clear works wonder, in some it doesn’t. The RAW file itself, despite the noise, are actually tack sharp.
Amazing owl and excellent image. Exceptional job on the exposure.
I’m certain there is a very good reason (bright BG spots, weird branches, etc) it’s totally centered, so I won’t question your choice.
S
