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Archive 2017 · A Shot in the Dark

  
 
Naturelvr
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · A Shot in the Dark


Very low light photography is, to say the least, very difficult for me to master. I went out the other evening before and after sunset to practice on my favorite Burrowing Owl family. I could barely see the owl through my viewfinder when I took this photo and only saw that the owl had been fluffing up his feathers when I saw the photo in my computer. I know there's still a bit of noise, but I need to work on it without softening the details of the owl's head. A fun photo for me, however!

1/30 sec.
560mm
ISO 5000
f/5.6
Canon 1DX with Canon 400 f/4 DO II and 1.4 t.c.
Handheld







May 21, 2017 at 02:26 PM
KirkB
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · A Shot in the Dark


Pretty cool image with lots of motion blur at 1/30s... looks like a painting.

Kirk



May 21, 2017 at 02:35 PM
Naturelvr
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · A Shot in the Dark


Thanks Kirk! I was trying to hold the camera as steady as I could so I'm glad the head and face is still intact!


May 21, 2017 at 03:47 PM
arbitrage
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · A Shot in the Dark


That is a fun shot with the spinning blurring body with the rock steady head giving you the stare down.

I find that the 1DX shouldn't need much NR at ISO 5000 if the shot is properly exposed and not cropped too much. I think you could work at keeping more detail in the head as the details are very smoothed out in the head feathers.

What program do you use for processing and NR? Usually some sort of selective NR where you would avoid it entirely on the head would be ideal. Usually I will still do Chroma NR on the entire image (I use LR's default) but Luminance NR everywhere but the head. In LR you can use a brush to select the head and pull the Noise slider to zero on the brush. Then you can turn the main NR slider to max and it will leave the brushed head alone. If you don't use LR then ignore all that

TFS
Geoff



May 21, 2017 at 04:46 PM
Naturelvr
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · A Shot in the Dark


I do use LR Geoff but just started learning masking and de-noising. I tried the Luminance slider but the face got very soft so went back to the original. I had to crop it on the RHS because there was another Owl there that was completely blurred. I do like this unique photo, however, so I will learn how to do exactly what you recommend. Thank you so much!!!


May 21, 2017 at 05:01 PM
birdied
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · A Shot in the Dark


Love the painterly look to the shot with the eyes and beak nice and in focus.

Birdie



May 21, 2017 at 05:34 PM
morris
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · A Shot in the Dark


This came out great Melissa

Morris



May 21, 2017 at 06:48 PM
brian_sp
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · A Shot in the Dark


1/30 handheld...great hh technique and great image


May 21, 2017 at 07:14 PM
louie champan
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · A Shot in the Dark


Melissa, you turned this shot into pure art, very nicely done.


May 21, 2017 at 07:59 PM
Naturelvr
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · A Shot in the Dark


Thank you all! I saved it for Facebook at higher px than I normally do and it looks great there but HUGE here!


May 21, 2017 at 08:29 PM
surfnron
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · A Shot in the Dark


I like it a lot Melissa ~ Ron


May 22, 2017 at 07:39 AM
kmunroe
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · A Shot in the Dark


nicely captured Melissa


May 23, 2017 at 03:39 AM





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