Great Horned Owl

[corkyg]

I came home mid-morning from a workoput at the gym, and as I pulled into the garage, I saw a familiar shape high in a big mesquite tree. It was a gredat horned owl.

I dashed in and grabbed the camera with the 70-300mm DO IS lens, and quickly fired off a shot. The sun was really bad behind the owl and to the right. A circular polarizer cuit some of the glare.

A fill flash would have been nice - but it was too far away - about 30 yards LOS. The lens was fully extended - could have used a 400mm.

Owl

 

[kalster]

is that noise level normal for ISO 400 on a 5d

 

[soydios]

yeah, that's a lot of noise for only ISO400, especially for a 5D. the chroma noise is really obnoxious. cool shot, though.

 

[montanafan]

Too bad about the backlighting, but the shot turned out really nice anyway. Looks like he's sizing you up. "Are you talkin' to me?"

 

[QuixoticOne]

Nice shot, lovely owl!

You were fortunate to see the bird, and to be able to get a shot with sufficient front-light and not too horrid glare / wash-out from the back-light.

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: kalster
is that noise level normal for ISO 400 on a 5d

No, stop baiting.

 

[corkyg]

You probably see grain due to enlarging a cropped image beyond its intended size. As I said, even at 300mm, the size of the owl framed was less than 25% of the entire scene captured. Ergo, when I cropped it out - that was the maximum intended size as displayed. We went from 5MB+ to 800 KB+ to get the crop, and also save space. I saw no reason to save a lot of tree branches and sky.

 

[kalster]

Originally posted by: foghorn67

Originally posted by: kalster
is that noise level normal for ISO 400 on a 5d

No, stop baiting.

huh? , I was just curios, I didnt know how much the image was cropped

stop being judgmental

 

[zig3695]

thats an outstanding picture! you all are too picky about stuff, that shot looks amazing! beautiful owl! great snag man!

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: foghorn67

Originally posted by: kalster
is that noise level normal for ISO 400 on a 5d

No, stop baiting.

don't try shutting down a valid discussion. I'm curious what post-processing techniques resulted in such high chroma noise at ISO400, as a 5D should not have that issue. JPEG compression? resizing? wrong color space? significant push processing?

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: corkyg
You probably see grain due to enlarging a cropped image beyond its intended size. As I said, even at 300mm, the size of the owl framed was less than 25% of the entire scene captured. Ergo, when I cropped it out - that was the maximum intended size as displayed. We went from 5MB+ to 800 KB+ to get the crop, and also save space. I saw no reason to save a lot of tree branches and sky.

so you enlarged a crop? if not, there is something wrong with your camera


some 5D images at 800 and 1600 (the lower half is the 5D, the upper an S3 IS

 

[quackagator]

Great picture. Right place at the right time

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
so you enlarged a crop? if not, there is something wrong with your camera.

Yes, I simply cropped out the bird out out of the center of the picture and then uploaded it. The pixels left will display at a given size according to your monitor's resolution.

I actually took two shote - here is the other one. Cropped similarly.

Owl2

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: ElFenix
so you enlarged a crop? if not, there is something wrong with your camera.

Yes, I simply cropped out the bird out out of the center of the picture and then uploaded it. The pixels left will display at a given size according to your monitor's resolution.

I actually took two shote - here is the other one. Cropped similarly.

Owl2

did you sharpen it at all? the first one you posted looks like it's been sharpened a tad too much in comparison to the second.

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: foghorn67

Originally posted by: kalster
is that noise level normal for ISO 400 on a 5d

No, stop baiting.

don't try shutting down a valid discussion. I'm curious what post-processing techniques resulted in such high chroma noise at ISO400, as a 5D should not have that issue. JPEG compression? resizing? wrong color space? significant push processing?

sorry. Too many times where discussions went from image discussion to something vs. somethingrather around here.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I think I'm too blind to spot things like owls

I did see an owl flying once in Capitol Reef NP, but my camera's autofocus was too retarded to get a picture of it in the air. I think that was the only wild owl I've ever seen in my life.

Did you try to get closer to the owl? I'm thinking that it had already spotted you.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunnyDid you try to get closer to the owl? I'm thinking that it had already spotted you.

No - I was directly under the owl who was up in a tree. I would have had to fly - then "she" would have fled the scene. "She" was seriously eyeballing me.

As for the earlier picture - yes - the problem was most likely sharpening applied to the image after cropping. The second picture was more native.

Great horned owls are somewhat skittish - especially in daylight. They are nocturnal creatures. Their feathers are such that they make absolutely no noise when flying. I have noticed a definite decrease in small critter and quail population lately.

 

[ucdbiendog]

could you maybe post the uncropped images? there is an unusual amount of noise and really they arent terribly sharp either. I have no experience with the DO lenses though

 

[GrJohnso]

First, nice shot.... Tough to see those guys unless they want to be seen... I love the eye contact, it really makes the shot...

As for the IQ that seems to have become the focus here, the level of noise isn't too crazy considering the level of cropping, lighting, etc... My only question is related to the metering... Were you able to spot meter the own for the exposure we see, or did you have to bump things up later in PP due to the strong backlighting? No mater what camera, that can be a challenge....

Anyway, nice capture, regardless...

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: ucdbiendog
could you maybe post the uncropped images? there is an unusual amount of noise and really they arent terribly sharp either. I have no experience with the DO lenses though

No - the original full frames were deleted. This was a quick point and shoot exercise - no time for adjusting ISO or anything else. I probably bumped things up too much in PP.