GHO and Re-post

Gallery: AvianPosted November 1, 2017126 views5 comments

We were staying at a cabin on Wallowa Lake in eastern Oregon and everynight, regular as clockwork, a duck would quack, geese would fly overhead, and an owl would start hooting. I was fortunate to spot the owl perched on a tree near the road to the cabin. It's interesting how the feathers blend in so well with the tree bark.

Canon 7d Mark II
Sigma 150-600 mm at 361 mm
1/200 (probably why the ears are blurry)
f 6.3
ISO 640

Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions are appreciated.

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on November 1, 2017 at 8:01 PM

A nice pose and I like the way it's positioned with respect to the tree, Allen. There's some strong fringing going on around the branches and the tree bark has an oversharpened look like maybe you used global sharpening instead of just sharpening the bird. I like the way the sky came out kind of sepia toned.

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

Comment posted by David Schoen on November 2, 2017 at 12:34 PM

Really nice level of detail on the Great Horned Owl. I think you got the exposure just right. I really like the pose and the staring eyes. I've always wanted to get this close to one of these beautiful owls.

Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on November 3, 2017 at 10:54 PM

Except for the ears it looks like you have good detail. You really were fortunate to spot the owl. Good job!

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on November 5, 2017 at 1:16 PM

A nice subject. I also like the texture of the bark. Good eye contact. An interesting color for this Great Horned Owl - the ones I see show much more browns and tans than this gray.

Unfortunately it looks over processed. There are strong edges separating the tree and owl from the background, with some obvious fine haloing. There's also a look of light spillover from the whites in the feathers onto adjacent feathers. Can you tell us more about how you processed this image?

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on November 5, 2017 at 11:41 PM

Here's a re-post attempting to correct the haloing and over-sharpened bark. I don't remember all the processing details, but I most likely used the high-pass filter for sharpening. There was also a strong blue cast to the image that I attempted to remove in LR. I also removed what appears to be a gray branch behind the owl.

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments