Barn Owl - It must be Saturday!!

[John Harper]

Hi there

Well here is the latest installment of trying to get a nice flying shot of a barn owl.

Landscape orientation this time to give myself more of a chance, it was a nice sunny day so lots of light. Got a decent position in the flying arena with not too many people in front of me, freshly charged battery, my favorite 400mm lens on the camera and an empty memory card. What could possibly go wrong!!!!

Well....... it would appear nothing! I nailed it this week!! so i will retire gracefully while i am ahead (or at least even.... if not ahead). and move on to other birds... there is always another hill to climb!!

But thanks to everyone who has contributed their thoughts advice and ideas on my Barn Owl shots it is appreciated and has helped in my journey to a more professional approach to my picture taking.

Tech Data:

EOS 1DMKIIN EF400mm F5.6L ISO 400 1/2500 @F5.6

As always comments and critiques welcome... but i am really happy with it .

John

 

[Don Cohen]

Very nice capture - I like love wingspread, outstretched claws, and the head looks nice and sharp. To my eye the tonality looks a tad 'flat' and would probably benefit from some curves/levels adjustments. I'm busy setting up my daughter's new computer, so don't have time now to try my hand it, but did want to comment on a nice image.

 

[Ray West]

Hi John,

It's been really nice watching your progress with the owl shots. Thanks for your posts and showing your efforts.

Could I be so bold as to suggest you go after some smaller birds? Some of our finches sort of hover, much like a humming bird, so smaller birds do not necessarily fly faster. Then, dragonflies in flight - it's getting near that time of year ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray

(ps, not gulls from the iow ferry....)

 

[John Harper]

Hi John,

It's been really nice watching your progress with the owl shots. Thanks for your posts and showing your efforts.

Could I be so bold as to suggest you go after some smaller birds? Some of our finches sort of hover, much like a humming bird, so smaller birds do not necessarily fly faster. Then, dragonflies in flight - it's getting near that time of year ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray

(ps, not gulls from the iow ferry....)

Hi Ray

Well it's because of comments and critiques from people like you and Don. that i keep plugging away trying to get better shots.

Funnily enough dragonflies is something i have thought about trying to photograph, would you suggest macro type lens or better with the 300 or 400mm....... Or.... of course!!.. yes the perfect excuse to myself to get that 500mm F4.0L.

I promise no gull shots from the IOW ferry, but maybe a dragonfly or two.

John

 

[nicolas claris]

Hi John
That's a good one!
Did Asher tell you that I'm a bit stubborn?
Like Don I think you need to improve the tonality of your images and may I add……sharpness?

BTW It is not the 1st time that I notice that your images posted are within the Adobe RGB color (colour for Ray;-) space. Be carefull this is the best space to shoot with and to do your PP work.

But a lot of web browser do not read this information (specially Windows machines) and display your image as if there were sRGB, and as they are not the display is wrong... before posting your image on the web, be sure to convert them to sRGB in CS before (via Edit/convert to profile and not assign profile!).
And yes, if you have a good screen, you'll see the differences, specially in the strong red colors).
So the image I did repost just above in this message is converted to sRGB.
As usual, worflow there, was NC sharpness action, levels, saturation (specially in the sky)

 

[John Harper]

Hi John
That's a good one!
Did Asher tell you that I'm a bit stubborn?
Like Don I think you need to improve the tonality of your images and may I add……sharpness?

BTW It is not the 1st time that I notice that your images posted are within the Adobe RGB color (colour for Ray;-) space. Be carefull this is the best space to shoot with and to do your PP work.

But a lot of web browser do not read this information (specially Windows machines) and display your image as if there were sRGB, and as they are not the display is wrong... before posting your image on the web, be sure to convert them to sRGB in CS before (via Edit/convert to profile and not assign profile!).
And yes, if you have a good screen, you'll see the differences, specially in the strong red colors).
So the image I did repost just above in this message is converted to sRGB.
As usual, worflow there, was NC sharpness action, levels, saturation (specially in the sky)

Hi Nicolas

I had exported the images from Lightroom and had not noticed that the TIFF output was set to Adobe RGB and not SRGB.

I will change it from now on. Reference the sharpness, i had used the action that you kindly posted in the thread about my tamarin head shot and thought that that had sharpened it up enough... but perhaps i am doing something wrong or maybe its losing it when i resize it down to post.

Anyway i will try and improve on the digital developing front and thank you for your advice and the heads up on SRGB.

John

 

[Asher Kelman]

The poor barn owl didn't know what was coming to him and voila, he got improved!

How do you prevent the bird from looking a bit like burnt toast!!!!

Well, that's the color with the sharplook! I don't know how to avoid it, but it does not look right. Maybe one has to desat a bit.

Asher

 

[nicolas claris]

How do you prevent the bird from looking a bit like burnt toast!!!!

Hi Asher

that's maybe because I did this home with my Powerbook. It's screen isn't that accurate...