Long-eared Owl

PJM · Mar 23, 2021

#1 is my final edit. But for those who want to look further I would love to get some feedback on how I could have made or processed this shot better.

#1 I've been following this owl for a while now. Usually he is so deep in brush you can barely see him. This time he was more exposed though still in deep shadow.

_DSC0027-2 by Peter Martin, on Flickr

Nikon D5600 (ASP-C sensor) w/ 200-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm. 1/500sec, f/7.1 Auto ISO, +1EV, on a tripod. Spot metering on the owl. Camera set ISO at 3200.

As noted he was in deep shadow so I shot +1EV to give myself more data to work with. #2 is SOOC. I cropped in to minimize the amount of bright brush in the foreground and then played around in Lightroom to get the edit in #1. My final Lightroom settings are shown below. I'm not sure how to deal with the graininess given the deep shadow other than not cropping in so close.

#2 SOOC

_DSC0027 by Peter Martin, on Flickr

Lightroom settings:
Exposure: -0.25
Highlights: -55
Shadows: +51
Blacks: -30
Clarity: +20
Sharpening: 49
All other settings at default values

K9Kirk · Mar 23, 2021

Edited, I don't think anything is going to save this type of picture. Bad combo there with the owl far away and in the shade. Sorry. Since you do use a tripod I would suggest using a slower shutter speed to get the ISO down to around 200 or less in the future.

Space Face · Mar 24, 2021

I've never seen one in the wild so great to see.

I'm just viewing on my fone so can't really see the grain issue.

PJM · Mar 24, 2021

K9Kirk said:
Edited, I don't anything is going to save this typed of picture. Bad combo there with the owl far away and in the shade. Sorry. Since you do use a tripod I would suggest using a slower shutter speed to get the ISO down to around 200 or less in the future.

I was afraid that might be the answer. It was still worth a try. I should have tried going lower on the shutter speed. Next time. Thanks for commenting.