Gotta be honest - doesn't grab me like the last one. The light is a bit colder and the post is a little less attractive. I enjoy seeing a different take on posture instead of just full eye contact. You get to wonder what is holding the subject's interest. Here though the shadow at the back just take my attention away. Perhaps more room at the top left would help. I might also be tempted to darken the bark if you're into that level of adjustment. The definition in it distracts me from the pattern on the owl's feathers.
Glad you posted a different owl pose.
Chris
Posted by Kim Connolly on November 30, 2009 at 11:56 PM
Not mad on this one Keith, but it did make me smile. I wondered what he was looking at up there.
Good detail on the feathers.
Posted by keith mitchell on December 1, 2009 at 12:38 AM
Thanks Chris and Kim.Chris i really won't to know the bad with the good on my pictures i hope more people will tell me the faults on this i usually know when things are ok but did have my doubts about this one,when i say i would like C&C i do with the good and the bad think it's the only way to improve.
Owl taken in very bright light,excuses,excuses.but i am sure theres more than this. Keith
Posted by David Sewell on December 1, 2009 at 1:20 AM
I wonder if something edible was - literally - crawling out of the woodwork? We'll never know, but I echo what others have already said, the pose takes the interest out of the picture. It needs more eye contact than is presented here. All the same, a nice, natural shot.
David
Posted by John Robinson on December 1, 2009 at 3:19 AM
There may be nits and opinions about the picture but when you think about it, this is the way many of us have actually seen a Litttle Owl in real life. I think we have to be care full not to make our pictures of wild life look or appear as we "like " them to look photographically.
JohnR
A different pose Keith but I find myself wanting more space below the feet. The definition of the bark does take away from the Owl very slightly (as Chris mentioned), perhaps some additional sharpening to the Owl could redress the balance?
Simon
Posted by Ian Macdermott on December 1, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Hi Keith
first off a much better shot of a little Owl than I have ever managed
Its a shame the bark is sharper than the Owl, maybe tone down the bark and a bit of extra sharpening on the Owl might work
Nits covered still an interesting pose Keith. Keep them coming.
Posted by Phil Shaw on December 1, 2009 at 1:36 PM
Taking you at your word, I have taken the liberty of downloading your image and I'm re-posting a quick re-working of it.
Firstly, the image did not come with an ICC profile. For best results, you should be converting the file to sRGB before posting and tagging the image file with this profile.
This is what I have done to the image, which is essentially my basic workflow in PS CS4:
1. Applied a Shadow/Highlights adjustment;
2. Applied a contrast adjustment in each of the individual colour channels using curves. This is perhaps an advanced level photoshop adjustment, and probably comes more naturally to folks that worked in colour in a real darkroom.
3. I have also applied a further global contrast enhancement using unsharp mask with low amount/high radius (20/40), then masked the increase in luminance levels in the brightest parts of the image and the surrounding bark.
4. Increased the luminance levels of the dark quarter tone using a curves adjustment layer by about 1-stop copying the mask to the layer so that the brightest tones and the bark are not elevated significantly.
5. On a separate layer I have applied several rounds of sharpening (5 or 6) using usm at 0.1/100 - you may be able to find a discussion of this in the archives (only works for web-sized images).
6. Finally, I have cropped the image to produce a more dynamic composition. Square format images nearly always lack any tension.
I hope you don't mind.
My version of your image may, of course, not reflect your intent or your own aesthetics.
Thanks to you all,i find this most interesting and i have certainly learnt a lot from the comments even if i don't understand them all this it is the sort of thing that i find this forum useful for.Phil thanks for the full works that you have done i will try and get to understand it all,Ian i had not noticed how sharp the bark was against the Owl maybe my one and a half eyes where not at there best but i can see it when it's pointed out.
Thanks again Keith
Posted by Andy Shepherd on December 1, 2009 at 8:33 PM
Nits covered on this one Keith and it's a bird I have yet to photograph so well done on the capture, some very good advice given on this too.
Andy...
Posted by Craig Jones on December 4, 2009 at 4:53 PM
Missed this Keith The first one for me as I like the pose captured and the space to the left of the bird looks lovely
Discussion
12 repliesNikon 500ml F4
F8
iso250
1/500.
C&C please
Gotta be honest - doesn't grab me like the last one. The light is a bit colder and the post is a little less attractive. I enjoy seeing a different take on posture instead of just full eye contact. You get to wonder what is holding the subject's interest. Here though the shadow at the back just take my attention away. Perhaps more room at the top left would help. I might also be tempted to darken the bark if you're into that level of adjustment. The definition in it distracts me from the pattern on the owl's feathers.
Glad you posted a different owl pose.
Chris
Good detail on the feathers.
Owl taken in very bright light,excuses,excuses.but i am sure theres more than this.
David
JohnR
Simon
first off a much better shot of a little Owl than I have ever managed
Its a shame the bark is sharper than the Owl, maybe tone down the bark and a bit of extra sharpening on the Owl might work
Taking you at your word, I have taken the liberty of downloading your image and I'm re-posting a quick re-working of it.
Firstly, the image did not come with an ICC profile. For best results, you should be converting the file to sRGB before posting and tagging the image file with this profile.
This is what I have done to the image, which is essentially my basic workflow in PS CS4:
1. Applied a Shadow/Highlights adjustment;
2. Applied a contrast adjustment in each of the individual colour channels using curves. This is perhaps an advanced level photoshop adjustment, and probably comes more naturally to folks that worked in colour in a real darkroom.
3. I have also applied a further global contrast enhancement using unsharp mask with low amount/high radius (20/40), then masked the increase in luminance levels in the brightest parts of the image and the surrounding bark.
4. Increased the luminance levels of the dark quarter tone using a curves adjustment layer by about 1-stop copying the mask to the layer so that the brightest tones and the bark are not elevated significantly.
5. On a separate layer I have applied several rounds of sharpening (5 or 6) using usm at 0.1/100 - you may be able to find a discussion of this in the archives (only works for web-sized images).
6. Finally, I have cropped the image to produce a more dynamic composition. Square format images nearly always lack any tension.
I hope you don't mind.
My version of your image may, of course, not reflect your intent or your own aesthetics.
Thanks again Keith
Nits covered on this one Keith and it's a bird I have yet to photograph so well done on the capture, some very good advice given on this too.
Andy...