The stillness … Great Horned Owl (PA)

[Soopahmahn]

Continuing my work learning about the GHO pair nearby. They were hooting to each other, possibly arranging dinner plans, bouncing between treetops together. The female stuck the landing in this branch, and as I had learned to be semi-concealed and in the right area, she came a bit closer than I had seen either of them yet.

Curious what you think of the comp, mood, etc.

Is there any way to clean up the ghosting/fringing? My 200-500 w/TC is notorious... I applied chromatic aberration and purple fringing corrections in DxO but there's only so much that accomplishes.

1/5 second @ 1050mm.

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[MrFotoFool]

Nice to have a pair near you. I have a pair in my condominium complex (Tucson). One lives in a tree above a small lawn near my unit and the other lives in a tree on the other side of the complex. They nest every year in the tree near me. Unfortunately the leaves are so thick and they sit so high up that it is usually difficult to get a good photo. It's still fun to hear the hooo-hooo at dusk every day.

 

[Soopahmahn]

It’s such a powerful sound.

 

[BAL Land]

I’d suggest using a higher shutter speed and bumping the ISO up more. There’s quite a bit of motion blur. With some noise reduction, it would’ve looked fine. As for the CA, I’m not sure. I like the composition, crop, and lighting.

 

[Soopahmahn]

I agree. I am learning to embrace higher ISOs, I'm always overly worried about noise and DR. But this would have been so much better at 1/25 or so. It's still a very slow shutter speed at that distance, but the motion blur would have been reduced and I'd have more keepers on my card. Thanks!

 

[Butlerkid]

You've have a great subject to work with! Lucky you!

I don't think you need all those branches at the bottom. And there is a lot of room above the bird. As mentioned, the shutter speed is very slow, even locked down on a solid tripod because of the subject movement. The owl seems very soft and has a blue tint. Do you use a color calibrated monitor? It is generally best to convert to sRGB for posting on the web.

Here's a quick play removing the blue tint on the bird and a different crop

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[Soopahmahn]

WOW! I have to agree with you regarding the branches. I was hesitant to crop closer because of aforementioned blur, but this is a much better composition.

The entire scene was definitely blue as it was shot after sunset, but I think I also applied a global blue saturation, trying to enhance the depth of the sky. I think there's a lesson for me here regarding local edits vs. global.

Thank you so much for your time.

 

[Soopahmahn]

@Butlerkid I forgot to respond directly to your question regarding monitoring and color output: I am using a ViewSonic monitor which came with a cert that colors are within delta2, and overall the cert was a lot tighter than that. It is compatible with a calibration tool but I did not buy one... did not seem necessary. Any input on this is welcome.

As for outputting to sRGB color space - any input on that you can give me, or a recommended piece of reading? Does the same hold for images I upload to a print shop?

DxO PL uses a new proprietary wide color gamut for importing and editing raw files, and then I can reduce to any color space I choose at the time of render. They have all these options for Soft Proofing as well, which I guess lets you view your image as it would print on various inks etc. But I am entirely ignorant on how to use such a tool, and assumed that my print shop would "do that for me." Hopefully, consistently...