Great Gray Owl Female

Gallery: AvianPosted July 16, 2014131 views11 comments

Canon 1D-X, 500mm f4 x 1.4 TC, handheld
f16, 1/2000, ISO2500

This is the mother of the chick we moved from the road, posted last week. She was watching us very carefully.

Nabesna Road, Wrangell-St. Elias N.P., early morning light. The wind was rocking the tree top back and forth, so I tried to manage it with a narrow aperture and not autofocus. Full frame, slight adjustment to levels, selective sharpening to bird.

C & C, please. Thanks for looking.

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on July 17, 2014 at 7:27 AM

I like the position of the owl and the perch. The image is sharp also. I'm thinking that this is a bit oversaturated.The sky looks a little too blue. Also, the owl is a little dark and hence, some of the feather details are lost. I think you should be able to selectively lighten the owl up and pull out some additional details. Nice capture. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Charles Gangas on July 17, 2014 at 7:55 AM

Nice work getting this image so sharp under those conditions Jim, and for creatively thinking of options to capture the moment. I tend to agree with Jerry that the sky seems a tad too blue, and I also think you might pull more detail from the shadows as he suggests. That said I'd love this image in my files!

Registered on August 12, 2009, 544 Posts, 2414 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on July 17, 2014 at 8:53 AM

Hi Jim: Beautiful bird. Great Gray's are just amazing to view. I read the comments so far and agree on the sky. Feels pretty over saturated.

I was also curious about your choice to use manual focus because the tree top was swaying. Why not just use AI-Servo with a focus point on the bird?

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on July 17, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Jerry and Chuck: I didn't touch saturation in either the camera settings or in post-processing. It was a very blue sky that morning. I've no idea what, if anything, could have happened.

Keith: I tried AI-Servo and it simply didn't work. I'm unsure if it was the soft feathers goofing it up, or the herky-jerky motion. I have any number of shots to prove the problem. The aperture was my best quick solution.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on July 17, 2014 at 12:18 PM

Jim: Read you comment on the color. Part of the problem is that the image does not have an embedded color profile (the larger version does not have one, I can't tell on the smaller version). Without an embedded color profile, the colors are going to be rendered incorrectly via a Web Browser. sRGB is the proper color space for web viewing.

I took the larger version which has no profile embedded and opened in PS. PS rendered it differently than the web browser (which of course points to the problem). I them assigned it an sRGB profile, then another copy with Adobe RGB 1998 profile. Here's what the differences look like.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Barb Pflaum on July 17, 2014 at 2:20 PM

Very nice pose and perch. I agree with the others that lightening the shadows on the owl might show more detail and improve the image.

Registered on January 14, 2009, 316 Posts, 2724 Comments

Comment posted by Jefferson Silva on July 17, 2014 at 5:47 PM

What an image, Jim! Stunning!
I loved the contrast, the green from the tree. Pretty nice image!

Registered on December 18, 2012, 162 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by Marina Scarr on July 17, 2014 at 9:44 PM

Cool setting but the light angle and giving you some pretty harsh shadows. Great perch!

Registered on March 6, 2014, 11 Posts, 104 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on July 18, 2014 at 12:00 AM

Thanks, Keith. I'm grateful for the work in your comment. I've always posted in sRGB; something must be set wrong in my PS "Save for Web" settings. I'll track it down.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by David Haynes on July 18, 2014 at 5:21 PM

Nice image Jim. I have to agree with Jerry on the oversaturated part. The greens and blues look a little bit oversaturated but I love the tree perch, the little pine cones, the tack sharp detail, and subject. Beautiful birds. Maybe selectively lighten some of the shadow area to improve this just slightly.

Registered on February 20, 2010, 110 Posts, 1511 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on July 19, 2014 at 1:05 PM

Nice job on the focus, Jim. Perhaps a bit brighter?

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments