Barn owls.

Gallery: AvianPosted March 9, 2015402 views9 comments

Nikon D4
Nikon 300ml 2.8
1/50@F4
iso 2000.

do like the fact that I have all fours Owls together and in different poses but the IQ is not so good especially the two outside birds which made me wondered about my dof, suppose looking on the bright side the Ivey leaf could have covered the face of the bird on the left so pleased about that, it was a really difficult situation that these birds where in "excuses! excuses! "so pleased to get a picture and learn from the experience, hope I get the chance again this year, looks promising at the moment. Have done a bit of sharping and nr did toy with the idea of doing something at the top of the image but decided to leave it .

Thanks for looking and your comments on my last post much appreciated.

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on March 9, 2015 at 10:09 AM

wow--this is cool. I really like the variety of poses and that you were able to get catchlights in all the open eyes. a hair more dof would have been nice, but this is quite nice as is.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on March 9, 2015 at 10:38 AM

The fact that you have four of these guys in the same shot is really great. The different poses are nice. I do wonder if the shutter speed of 1/50s contributed to the IQ issue. That's a very low shutter speed. Was this hand held? The dof should not have been a major issue, as all the owls appear to be in generally the same focal plane. Stopping down would have eliminated this as a factor, but your shutter speed would have been even slower. In retrospect, bumping the ISO (the D4 could have handled an even higher ISO) might have given you the shutter speed you really needed.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Stephen Kaluski on March 9, 2015 at 10:58 AM

Hi Keith, Barn Owl overload, brilliant, you are very fortunate.

Not sure why you are hesitant about cranking up that ISO, try 6400 just to increase the SS as 1/50 is really low. Agree about removing the white spots, plus I might crop out the ivy creeping in on the LHS rather than clone. I really will need to see you when I get back from BC, this is an awesome sighting.

TFS
Steve

Registered on March 25, 2007, 189 Posts, 1064 Comments

Comment posted by Hans Overduin on March 10, 2015 at 5:51 AM

What's in a name... I love this shot that shows the owls as we imagine seeing them... Well done, Hans

Registered on August 31, 2011, 491 Posts, 3807 Comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on March 10, 2015 at 8:47 AM

Thanks a lot guys, for viewing and your comments.

Keith

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on March 10, 2015 at 9:16 PM

Ok, Keith...now I am envious. I can't find even one...and you have them by the handful. Care to loan out a few?

Very nice job of getting good eye contact from all of them. I like how they are lined up. Agree with others about increasing your ISO on that camera. I shoot Canon, but good friend has a D4 and he regularly shoots at ISO 6400 when needed without any issues.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on March 11, 2015 at 4:09 AM

Thanks Kurt will send you a couple over, going to Vietnam and Japan so give me plenty of time to play with my D4 and it's high ISO settings.

Keith.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 13, 2015 at 4:32 PM

Wonderful shot Keith, love the 4 different poses on the birds. With the 2 center birds sharp and the outer birds not in as good a focus the issue here was not having sufficient depth of field, not so much shutter speed. Most photographers underestimate how much they have to stop down to get multiple birds in focus. Going to a higher iso and F5.6 would have probably done the trick here. That being said it's still a super shot. Enjoy your trip to Asia.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on March 21, 2015 at 12:51 AM

Wow, this is just gorgeous, Keith! A very well deserved WP. I would love to photograph these guys more often.

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments