Long-eared owls

LEOs were showing regularly nearby in the evenings in May/June until the young fledged and didn't demand the same amount of feeding! Hope you'll like these.

1. I like this one because of the feeling of space that the bird needs to hunt over



2. Same one cropped



3. This one came out of the sun



And the pick of the rest:
4.



5.



6.



7.



8.



9.

Hi John

I'm jealous. Haven't any decent LEO shots

Hope you don't mind. I've edited number 8. Will of course ask mods to remove if you wish.




In lightroom,
Warmed up image slightly
increased exposure by just over 2/3 of a stop.
Increased contrast slightly.
Used the "Punch" preset which increases clarity and vibrance
Applied sharpening, with a mask, so the background was left unsharpened, followed by noise reduction
Applied slight vignette to tone down the corners just a tad

Great captures, well done

These are great captures. No. 4 is the pick for me. The sunlight through the wing feathers with the lovely meadow background is in contrast to the fixed lethal intent look of the face. I really like the pose of No. 9 but it looks a little over processed on my monitor.

Like them all, thanks for sharing.

Thanks, all, nothing like an owl to get the heart going when you're out birdwatching!
Alan, I don't mind at all - the difference is remarkable, though maybe a bit of texture has been lost in the name of brightness? Do you think Lightroom is better than Photoshop? I have Photoshop, but I'm sure I don't get the best out of it and don't find it easy to use.
Thanks again,

John

Agree about the loss of some detail John. Would have been much better with an original sized image, preferably RAW file. But it does show the potential.

I hardly use photoshop, and what i did took about 2 minutes in Lightroom