Some other birds of prey (5 pics, 56K)

From top to bottom we've got a barn owl, a barking owl, and a sea eagle if I remember correctly.

All shot at ISO 500 with the 70-200 2.8 IS + 1.4xTC

#1 1/640", f/4, 280mm

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amazing shots nick, would you mind posting the details of each shot for us beginners?

Hahaha The Barking Owl's really look like something from the Muppets.

Great shots.

wow, #4 is brilliant, the rest are only amazing :P.

Fantastic series Nick.

shayb wrote in post #2157072
amazing shots nick, would you mind posting the details of each shot for us beginners?

The metadata is still embedded but I've added the details above also.

DaleP wrote in post #2157141
Hahaha The Barking Owl's really look like something from the Muppets.

And I think it was this one that was named Gizmo too. Rather fitting for a muppet I think.

Ospi wrote in post #2157215
wow, #4 is brilliant, the rest are only amazing :P.

Thanks Reece!

Reyno wrote in post #2157222
Fantastic series Nick.

Cheers Reyno!

Nick,

Love number 3, great detail captured there.

haha, it does too!!

good shots nick

Lovely series. LOL at #3! Love it's expression - What on earth did you just say to it?!

Fine job of not blowing out the whites on the first owl. I am speechless as what to what to say about the muppet owl. Never seen a picture of one of those that I can recall. Sea eagle is nice also.

kendickson wrote in post #2157355
Love number 3, great detail captured there.

catsith wrote in post #2158883
haha, it does too!!

good shots nick

Thanks Ken and Tina!

nitsch wrote in post #2158979
Lovely series. LOL at #3! Love it's expression - What on earth did you just say to it?!

All I said was: "Would you mind if I shoot you a few times?"

Blue Deuce wrote in post #2159019
Fine job of not blowing out the whites on the first owl. I am speechless as what to what to say about the muppet owl. Never seen a picture of one of those that I can recall. Sea eagle is nice also.

The handler was very obliging in holding the birds for us. She was happy to move into the shade if we asked so that we didn't have to contend as much with harsher lighting.

Super shots Nick. These are first class. Like the rest have said no 4 is a absolute winner.

I discovered a new trick when playing with my sea eagle and kookaburra shots. It can bring out a little extra colour detail in the eyes.

Add a New Levels Adjustment layer.
Move the grey point slider back towards the black ie to the left. The whole shot will blow out to the max but ignore this just look at the eyes. Fiddle with the this until the eye looks ok. You should get some colour detail again.
Fill the mask on the Levels Adjustment layer completely with black.
Use a small white brush to brush over the eyes to reveal the eye colour.

The advantage of the Adjustment layer is that you can tweak it later if needed. This definitely not something for the owls and only a maybe for the eagle. I suppose it really depends on the eyes. It worked very well on my kookaburra and somewhat on my eagle. I'm guessing that because these birds had some colour in the eyes and most of the body is white we have exposed for the whites which tends to force the eye more towards the black.

great series Nick, you captured them well. Nice work.

Thanks Greg and thanks Justin.

Greg, good tip with the eyes. I actually did mask the eye when I was playing with curves on the rest of the picture. I don't know why I never really thought to actually lighten the eye. I'll have to go back and have another play.

Great shots, nice work