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Hi Jeff, welcome to the avian gallery! I agree with you--you captured some really nice light here, and the bg (background), or the bottom half, at least, is great. I agree that the perch is a little large relative to the subject (and that a more natural perch would be preferable). For me though, of more concern than the perch is the bg behind and left of the bird--is it an oof (out of focus) vehicle? I find that the biggest distraction, perhaps moving a little to your left could have removed it from the frame. I think your processing is looks good.

In terms of your question about "should I even bother with this picture," I think the answer depends on a lot of factors, many of which are personal. For a species I've never shot before, I'd take pictures even on a bad perch, just to have something to build from. But I'd also take advantage of the time that it was perched to make sure I had my exposure dialed in just right (you did), and then set up hoping for some flight shots when it chose to leave the perch. Specifically, in this case I'd have changed from where you were to ISO 400 and 1/1250 to have enough shutter speed for some action.

Looking forward to more of your work!

Hi Jeff: Thanks for posting. Glad to see you took the plunge. I think your own self critique is pretty good. Yes, it would have been nice to be on a more natural perch, but that's what you got. Your processing looks OK. I'm going to take a crack at re-processing based on your larger image and send it to you. Looks like the exposure on the owl is great, details are fine. Keep 'em coming.

A good subject for your first post - welcome to Avian.

Brian has given you a solid critique and I second the points he has already made.

I like the light in this image, and I like the owl's posture and position on the stump. I find the texture on the stump to be interesting and a plus in the image, but I agree that the white sign detracts. I don't think that is something that can be "fixed" in post processing - it would have been better to deal with in the field by shooting from farther to the left if that was possible.

As Brian pointed out a bigger distraction is the OOF shed in the background - especially the light colored roof that pulls the viewer's eye out of the frame to the top left. Again, a different shooting position if possible would have eliminated that problem.

In terms of your parameters the exposure settings are fine, but I would definitely have been at a higher ISO to give more flexibility. 1/320th second is pretty slow for avian subjects and long lenses: a tripod will keep the camera steady but won't help if the subject moves much. I shoot with D300 bodies and rarely go below ISO 400 and use ISO 800 when needed in low morning light.

I've not used ViewNX2 other than for my initial review of raw files, and I don't have Lightroom to know enough to speak on it. But going by the same adjustments in Photoshop your values seem reasonably harmless.

Does the 25% crop mean that this is only 25% of the full image, or 75%?

With proper exposure (as you have here) and the low ISO I wouldn't expect any need for any noise reduction. Did you apply the NR selectively to the entire image? I rarely use it (even at ISO 1600) and never apply it to the subject.

Sharpening is generally the last operation I perform on any image, and only after the tif has been reduced to posting dimensions. I use Smart Sharpen and tweak the amount for each and every image.

Hi Jeff, and welcome.

Sometimes there is really nothing that you can do photographically when you get a shot like this. You've found the Owl, and that's 90% of the battle. If the Owl is staying in the area then you need to spend the time to see where it is perching regularly and be ready when he is in a better location. Get a small blind (under $100) and set up to take your shot. Be patient and wait for the perfect shot. Sure, you could do a lot of photoshop here to remove the sign... but you would be happier with a clean shot that was done in camera. Look into a Kwik Cammo or a doghouse type blind for getting closer to birds in general. If the Owl is using this perch frequently maybe you could move the sign down six inches or so. Also, try not to have the building in the background.

Thanks so much everyone for the detailed comments and sharing your experience. A photography course in 4 comments

The crop is to about 25% of full-frame, sorry for the confusion. Also forgot to mention shot from my car across the road, no beanbag, clearly I need to get one of those as well based on the amount of use they get for the shots here. I got about 10 shots then a big utility truck came from the other direction and chased it off. I ended up going back to that area a couple more times and it turns out there were at least 5-10 owls hunting around there, so I did get some flight shots, as I was down there specifically trying BIF for the first time. I'll work on one and put it up. Plus eagles, rough-legged, GBH, harriers, one merlin and one peregrine. It's a really nice spot in the winter.

Thanks for all the exposure advice, I certainly need it. Before this I may actually have only used my camera in shutter-priority a handful of times, despite having had DSLRs for 10 years now. I got settings from somewhere and have set my "U2" saved shooting configuration to 1/1250, shutter-priority, Auto-ISO with a 100-3200 range. Hadn't used Auto-ISO previously, either, and it clearly is saving all kinds of shots for me I've previously screwed up, and will hopefully help me out until I get a better idea what various situations call for.

Also thanks for the reminders about worrying about the backgrounds while shooting, I still get so interested in and focused on finding the animal and trying to get the subject sharp I don't have a good habit yet to be worrying about the overall composition except for the most obvious things.

With proper exposure (as you have here) and the low ISO I wouldn't expect any need for any noise reduction. Did you apply the NR selectively to the entire image? I rarely use it (even at ISO 1600) and never apply it to the subject.

Good point, I think I just did that because it made the little noise I saw in the bg at pixel view disappear further. But you're right of course, at normal view plus with downsizing none of that would have shown anyway. And it wasn't selective, so it would have applied to the the owl as well. Interesting to hear you expressly don't NR the subject - is that common practice among nature photographers?

Sharpening is generally the last operation I perform on any image, and only after the tif has been reduced to posting dimensions. I use Smart Sharpen and tweak the amount for each and every image.

And forgot that part, too, thanks, about only sharpening at the last step, since Lightroom just gives you access to all those fancy sliders all the time to just do everything in any order and multiple times. And if I hadn't sharpened before resizing I probably wouldn't have had the noise that got me to NR anyway.

Thanks everyone, this is cool

re: noise reduction and sharpening:

These both need to be applied selectively in order for their effect to be positive rather than negative. Noise reduction smooths out the noise in an image, but when applied to the main subject, it more often ends up smoothing out (eliminating) fine detail. Noise reduction should generally only be applied to the bg, or if necessary, very carefully on the main subject.

On the other hand, sharpening enhances fine detail, but can also enhance things you don't want highlighted (like noise). So, sharpening should only be applied to the main subject (and anything else you want sharp--perch, adjacent habitat, etc)

One more thing regarding noise--the more you crop, the more you accentuate each pixel of noise. Noise that is non-existent in an uncropped photo can suddenly become dramatic when you reduce it to 25% of the original. It's just one of the reasons why there's no substitute for getting close to your subject.

Hi Jeff and welcome to NPN! I won't comment with a lot of suggestions on this one since it appears a few others already gave you a ton to think about. I will say the perch doesn't bother me near as much as the background in the upper left. It pulls the viewer's eye away from the subject. When shooting birds, it's always best to give the background as much importance as the subject. Well..almost as much

Congrats on your first SEO Jeff
I surely can't add to the course curriculum here.
Looks like you have your homework assignments all lined up too
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