Barred Owl +Rework

Version 2

Version 3

Full disclosure…I am not a wildlife photographer in the least bit. In fact, I can’t think of another instance where I was presented with an opportunity like this. With that said, I was completely unprepared! I was walking along a path in Acadia National Park when I noticed a woman looking through some binoculars. In an attempt to be courteous I stopped walking as I assumed she was looking at something important to her. I stopped and put my bag down for a minute when she came walking over to alert me that the sound we were hearing was coming from 3 Barred Owls that live in the area. I figured at this point it was worth a shot at least! I wouldn’t say I nailed any of the attempts as my settings were all over the place. Trying to figure out shutter speed and ISO meant that I had to “play” a lot between shots. I have three or four images that I thought were worth at least attempting to process, this is the first.

Specific Feedback Requested

As I described above, my settings were all over the map. I’d love to hear ideas on a good way to program my camera so that in the future I can switch over to a different mode and fire away for wildlife!

The ISO was really high here, 1280, (1/1600, f5.6, 400mm) so I tried to use Topaz DeNoise AI first, then Topaz Sharpen AI before the actual editing began. I also removed all sharpening and luminance noise reduction in Lightroom.

I hope that by not cropping it shows a sense of the place along with the owl. A step to the right would have probably done me good as I could have moved that first branch away from the owls claw. I do have others that have a less obstructed view.

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No

If it is not your specialty: well done!

You did pretty well capturing the Owl in the environment. You said the ISO was really high here… ISO 1280… That’s not a high ISO at all with modern cameras. If you were concerned about that you could have also cut your shutter speed to 1/800 and shot at ISO 640 since the subject was still.

How to switch settings quickly for wildlife? Can’t tell you since you didn’t tell us anything about the camera.

My biggest issue with this image is the bird is dead center. Here’s a small crop to help with overall composition.

I like the way the owl is set against the blurry green immediately behind it. Really stands out.
I would think you are a wildlife photographer, since you had your 400mm lens with you out there in the woods! :blush:

Nice job and what a lovely bird. I’d do a different crop from Keith’s where there is more room for the owl to look into on the right, but that’s a subjective thing. The colors look a little rich to me, but again that’s also subjective. Wildlife photography is new for me, too, and I’ve set a custom mode on my camera that’s accessed by a dial on the top. Very quick and easy to switch if something comes my way. I wrote a blog post about it when I changed up my Custom Modes a second time -

I have 4 of the 5 Custom Modes on my camera set up for different things -

  • C1 - tripod (aperture priority, 2-second shutter delay)
    C2 - handheld (aperture priority)
    C3-1 handheld (shutter priority)
    C3-2 handheld (shutter priority…but different)
    C3-3 not set

The blog goes into the other things that are in each mode. I love that I can do this.

This is a nice look at the owl, showing good detail. I’d be happy to have taken this shot. I like the perch and the trees to the left of the owl. I think you could crop this some to give more emphasis to the owl and still retain the sense of place.

How wonderful to have come upon this owl in such a nice setting, and to have been able to capture a good picture! I like @Keith_Bauer’s crop, as the bird is more prominent. I think the detail on the two trees on the left are a wonderful element.

I have a custom setting for birds in flight but in most other situations I have time to do quick adjustments. An important setup for quick response to a scene is using BB focus with one button for eye AF and one for a single point, which is pretty easy to move around or to focus then recompose.

Well…I missed a 0! lol…it was 12800! Dropping to 6400 would have probably helped. I have a Sony a7riii so I know it has the capability and how to change the custom settings. I guess I’m thinking more along the lines of what should those settings be so I can quickly pop over and make minor adjustments. I’m sure it is something I could find on YouTube if I looked for a few.

[quote=“Keith_Bauer, post:3, topic:23839”]
My biggest issue with this image is the bird is dead center. Here’s a small crop to help with overall composition.
[/quote] This is a common issue I find that I’m having…I need to keep that front and center when I’m out.

Thank you, I was quite happy with how it seemed to pop out as well. I’m young…I carry all my gear all the time and @Ed_McGuirk made me buy the 100-400 :laughing:

I know I don’t want to lose anything on the left as I really like the two trees there so I’m thinking about ways to crop that will maintain that AND bring the bird into a more prominent position…I will play.

Thank you Allen, I was quite pleased for sure!

Thank you Diane! This is something that continues to escape me and I’m not sure I quite understand it still. I have BB focus set up, thats what I use for all my shots now, as of a few months ago. I need to do a better job of figuring out when it is going to trigger eye AF and when it isn’t. I have to get a better grasp on how that works within the custom shoot settings that Sony has as some things seem to be constant in the custom modes while others change from one mode to the next.

I stuck with Canon thanks to about 30 pounds of lenses, and don’t know how the Sonys work, but I have one BB for eye AF and one for spot (or whatever metering pattern I had last selected). I usually hit the eye AF button first and if it doesn’t find the subject I hit the other one and either quickly recompose to put the spot on the subject, or move the spot if I have time.

Nice job, considering :wink: … even should you be a seasoned bird photographer I would still be thrilled to see an image like this, only thing I would change is the composition, as Keith already mentioned. Other than that a fine image ! cheers, Hans

Hi David
Some times it is nice to at the end of a list. (I do not have to get into all the camera setting). Nature is funny, you never know what is out there to photograph. Good job on putting you camera to work this Barred Owl.
Peter

Really nice shot. I agree with the others about cropping to move the owl off centre, but I can also see that keeping the two trees to the left does add something. Possibly a change of aspect ratio to 16:9 and crop tight to the trees on the left? That way you are giving some space to the upper right-hand side where the owl is looking.
Nice job though!

@Hans_Overduin Thank you, I decided to go with a crop along the lines of what @Keith_Bauer mentioned. I think I actually like that it is looking to the short side of the frame, almost provides some mystery and I’m not always one to stick to rules as being the only way to construct an image.

@peter Thank you! I appreciate the kind words.

@Will_Bjornsen that is an interesting idea, I have included a version of what that could look like above. I would need to do some clean up to remove distractions in a crop like that (which I haven’t done) but it does have some merits.