Barred Owl

[Darrell Riggins]

Trying to upload again! hope it works this time.
Found this guy trying to stave off the Bluejays harassing him. Canon 500 mm lens handheld. didn't have time to set up my tripod. Suggestions??

[windrider86]

Combined your posts for you. In the future reading thru these may help you to know what should be included in your posts!

[FDCPR]

Suggestions are what you asked for so...
It's tough to say without the techs but, if you had opened the aperture some you could have controlled some of the busy background better. With the lens used the distance to the subject makes a huge difference in the depth of field, so opening the aperture may or may not have helped.
The light is strong side light on camera right, and at least on my iPad they look a little hot. I'd need to see on a monitor, but if they are hot they can be toned down some in post. The owl has a slight head turn to camera left, and the eyes in shadow. With the strong side lighting an option would have been to use fill flash to light up the face and the eyes. Ideally a step to the left would have place the head more square to the sensor, but I understand sometimes it is not possible.

For the photo as is, tone down the whites, lighten the shadow areas and a slight crop on the top will help the photo a lot. Other than Windrider's suggestion, it much easier to critique a photo when it's part of the post. Having to open the attachment means one can't see the photo as they critique.

Overall congratulations, owls are tough subjects.

[inkista]

Dude, I am freaking amazed you got it that clear with that shutter speed (1/40s). Kudos to you on that. I would have be increasing the ISO to drive up the shutter speed, possibly even opening up the aperture a stop. I love the sleepy expression on its face.

Personally, given the conditions you were shooting over, I'm not sure there's any way you might have gotten a better shot outside of lighting the bird to lower the dynamic range and increase contrast.