Great Gray: Original vs. Adjusted

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padrepaul

padrepaul

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Hello gang,

I posted this in another forum, but love as much feedback as possible.

I was lucky enough to see a great gray owl last night and she (I think she) flew to another perch; I got a few shots off as I tried
my best to follow her.

I wanted to get rid of the tree in the back so tried to clone it out as best I could in RAW and then lowered the structure as well in processing.

Just don't want it to look like work was done; so if I'm not seeing something in the background please let me know. I may use the original
for a nature competition, hopefully it doesnt blow the image.

I also in the original darkened the background more to make the owl pop; but maybe I went too dark? The second is just slightly lowered in the background using a
RAW Mask.

Thanks!
Paul

For the record: Sax Zim Bog; I'm a couple of hours away, and in summer there are not 50 photogrpahers on the side of the road, just a million bugs.

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To me the last one is the best, but I'd brighten it up just a bit. If you wanted to use one of the earlier ones you should clone out two of the three dark blobs above the owl that were left over from the original cloning.
 
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HI. What I noticed in the image, using the last one, is that the part that was cleaned up just under the bird, and a very nice image, is a blur. I've done this kind of thing before and I had to be careful that the clean up matched the area around where I was making the correction as well as matched the depth of field in that area. That front bush you are trying to edit was closer to the camera than the bush directly under the owl. I, too, would take out the line in the back as I think it distracts from the main subject. I think it is definitely an image to work on as you did a great job of catching the owl in flight and tack sharp.
 
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Fantastic shot, and neither the BG tree or the foreground tree bother me very much. As you say that you don't want it to look like it was edited severely, it appears a vignette was added??? My favorite would be the first but I would try to get rid of the vignette effect.
 
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I agree the vignette looks a bit heavy handed. I often add a gentle vignette but try to make sure it’s very subtle and not obvious to the viewers.

Also if this is a crop, I’d loosen it up a bit as the wingtips especially the upper right wingtip is awfully close to the frame edge. I’d give your owl a bit more breathing room in the frame if possible.

FWIW, I might have played with some subtle background shadow pulls and perhaps a gentle Gaussian blur on the background as an alternative to cloning out the background tree. Hard to say what would work better in the end but I’ll generally try tuning down potentially distracting background elements before resorting to clones, patch tools, content aware fills and other tools that can create their own artifacts.

All that said, great moment you captured there of a gorgeous raptor. Nicely done!
 
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Thanks for the replies - I do obsess over an image for sure. I did brighten it a touch and was able to work with it. Got some very nice perched shots to go through, but just the two flight shots came out. But still happy to get one I liked. I'll probably continue to tinker with the image.
 
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Great angle and position of the bird. Every version looks fine but I do prefer the last two with the tree out of the picture. However IMO the last one is a bit dark. The wing tips show up a little better in the third one.
 
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I like first one a lot. It captures a wonderful moment so well.
While the editing is nice to try, the part that seems least satisfactory is bellow the bird. I agree the last of the images is what I would hope to see.
I always find removing sticks, trees and distracting items irritating. In this case the fact that the original tree is somewhat out of focus really helps. It’s just a matter of personal preference.
 
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Whatever you decide to do, this image is worth the work. I know well the feeling of obsessing over an image. In my experience, the real question is knowing when the great has become the enemy of the good. As other commenters have said, the area below the owl does seem a bit unnatural to me. Plus, when you removed the tree trunk, you left a branch extending up and left from the owl's shoulder. It seems to me to have an abrupt end right at the bird's shoulder.
 
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I prefer the first, it just looks like the bird is coming out of the woods, as you would expect. I don't see the tree as a distraction, but rather I think it adds to the picture.

Very nice capture, regardless. :)
 
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Sweet shot , the original is my favorite , it set's the scene , the cleanup is nice however it makes the subject look superimposed , just my amateur opinion
I'd be happy if any of them were mine lol . Good job sir
 
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I tend to gravitate to #3. I agree with previous posts about #4 being too dark and too much vignette. In addition to cleaning up the cloning of the BG tree and area below the owl, another thing you might try is take the image back to ACR (or LR) and applying a mask with gentle DeHaze on the lower L tail area. It does not always work well, but I have had some really good results cutting through OOF greenery that is over my subject. Way easier and less "over processed" look than attempting to clone that area to remove.
It is a great image, no matter the version you prefer.
 
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I would try burning both sides of the tree from top to bottom and maybe dodge the tree a bit. I assume the wing tip was close to the top of the frame and you
had no choice on allowing more space above the wing tip. If it is an "art" piece I would add to the top background, print it and enjoy looking at it. I hope to make up there
for the first time soon. Congrats on a cool sighting and shot.
 
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