Scops Owl

I posted a (slighly modified(!)) picture of a small scops owl on the gallery yesterday. Thought I would post the original here, along with one or two others as (to my mind) it was a very photogenic bird!!

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2659/3875091848_8e7a187643_b.jpg
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They were taken a little while back all with K10D and Sigma 70-300mm lens. Hope you like them

Best Regards

Mat W

Ooh - there's soemthing funny happening with the first picture - I'll try and fix that...

Mat

Try again...

Love the shots but they all have a green cast, was it the light or perhaps the reflection of the leaves?

Like Jackie I really like the photos but the green cast isn't working for me

Still very green. Is your monitor calibrated?

G

Hello George, I note your question of calibration. I have, in the past used a Spider pro. Thes days I dont bother. I download from the card to the HDD. I open up the jpg in PS, crop or square-up, do curves and sometimes sharpen slightly. If I trust that the camera will reproduce what it see's, most of the time, am I missing some thing that should be done?

When I used to print my images, I never touched the colour settings or adjustments and always ignored the screen influence. The prints always seemed to come out good. I now get photo prints done locally here in Doha and again, I don't tamper with colour balance.

As there is a green cast on the owl image, was it there to start with or has something confused the camera?

Best regards

Get rid of the green cast and crop some of the background out and you'll have a good set of Owl photos.

Thanks everyone for the comments - you're right there is a green cast. I took the pictures a little while ago and wasn't sure how to fix it - I think it stems from the leaves rather than anything that has confused the camera. The owl was in a hole in a tree and the whole area was enclosed by a canopy of foliage with the sun (such as it was) reasonably overhead so I guess the leaves have coloured the light (?). That said, I have not consciously calibrated my monitor either and I think I ought to...

I have got used to photoshop since having first 'developed' these pictures, so I think it's probably time to go back over them and try and fix the colour

Thanks again

Regards

Mat

I am not George but either natural(which I doubt) or in camera (which I doubt again) or during PP (which I suspect) it still looks not good.
One click correction in elements on the white face shows how it should look.




If someone has the ability to calibrate their screen they should do it.
Not only for a predictable and correct colour output but also for a correct representation of contrast levels. Visible dark details or highlight details. Remember the discussion about Peters waterfall picture were someone could not see any detail in the dark parts?

If you can not see all the different zones on your monitor (specially the difference between Zone 1 & 2 on the darkest side and zone 9 & 10 on the brightest side, you have a monitor issue.




Sorry Matt, I have no intention to hijack your thread, but it seemed relevant.

Thanks, Martin.

K10D, the reason I asked the calibration question is that the pictures are so green I am surprised Matt didn't see it. It suggests to me that the monitor is either faulty or in need of some serious re-setting.

G

No problem at all - you have worked a wonder with a single click in elements !!

I shall work the rest...

Regards

Mat W

Have seen this before when someone took a shot of a young girl in the woods under a canopy of leaves, the child was tinted green - so I do think it is the ambient light and not the camera. Why it may not have been noticed is because that was what the eye saw and therefore the result looked correct at least on first viewing to the photographer.

Thanks Jackie - I think there is definitely something in what you say. However, on the plus side, I have now adjusted my monitor in any case, and I have learned how to fix a colour cast, which I hadn't done before (slightly embarrassingly now I realise how easy it is to do!). So I have had a learning experience for which I am very grateful

And I have now tweaked all my pics of this owl...

Thanks again everyone

Mat

And could we please see your tweaked pictures, 'cause they are truly wonderful pics of an owl, it's just the green cast that spoils them. My favourite is #1; it seems to look a bit sorry for itself there.