Big Eyes

[Eb]

I have been sitting on images of captive owls for a few years.  At the time, I had decided to try a shallow dof, obviously to rid myself of background but also for selective focus closeup portraits.  My idea was to render only the leading feathers, beak and eyes in a sharp plane.  It appears that I misjudged dof, and in many samples I did not get the eyes sharp enough.  Sometimes I was able to focus stack a second shot in the burst which may have gotten more of the eyes sharp.  OK, so more than a few were usable and achieved what I wanted!  But, what to do with these, since it appears that wildlife (even if captive) taken in selective focus is likely not to anyone's taste.

A few days ago, I was inspired to try a black and white, high key approach, thus taking the subject matter into a territory not typical for birds.  Please let me know your response to viewing these.

1, Barn Owl.  I think this one works the best with the strongly outlined face and the big eyes.




2, Great Horned Owl




3, Great Horned Owl profile




4, Barred Owl




5, Northern Pygmy Owl, likely the least successful for this treatment, and a bedraggled bird indeed.




6, Great Horned - alternative softer treatment but with the big eyes look, in comparison to #2

[elsa hoffmann]

nice and soft on the eye - creates a good series for me.
In some of them I think the eyes could be a tad more contrasty (dark) but probably not so easy if you want to keep a good high key balance.

I agree this will not be to everyone's taste - But I think you got what you wanted to create. Thats the important part.

[simato73]

I think the treatment suits the barn owl best.
I agree with Elsa and would prefer the great horned owl to have more black tones.
Another thing I find detracts from the images and that probably cannot be fixed, at least not easily, are the reflections in the owls' eyes, showing the surrounding enclosed space and people.

[Jakov Minić]

Astonishing owls!
I have never seen such good images of owls!

[John Geerts]

Super-owls in this treatment, I think it works well.  Most successful is with the eye-contact, I feel. The Barn Owl and The Northern Pygmy Owl are outstanding as it shows a kind of vulnerability.

[Akira]

I enjoy the experiment of this unique approach.

I also agree that the barn owl suits the treatment the best, but I also like the barred owl (#4) and the great owl (#6) shots.

I also wonder if the background was mostly snow.  If yes, the color versions should look nice, too.

[Jacques Pochoy]

Wow... Great pictures at high key of those owls, really good work... :-)

[Bjørn J]

Wow. These are the best bird photos I have seen in a while. The first one is hypnotic and ghost-like. Could be a spirit character in my favourite movie "Spirited away".

[Jan Anne]

The high key treatment really works with the white barn owl but for me personally the eyes are lifted a tad too much, this makes the eyes look like dusty marbles instead of the menacing eyes the owls are known for.

[Erik Lund]

Super nice captures, I would also keep the eyes a bit darker...

[Eb]

Wow, great comments by all!  I appreciate those helpful reactions to an experiment.  Thanks, Elsa, Jan, Bjørn, Jacques, Akira, John, Jakov, Simone and Erik!  To those that feel the eyes should be further accentuated by darkening, yes, that is what I had done and I agree that it should be taken further.  Simone, I will see if I can do something to neutralize the reflections.  Thank-you. 

Akira, the background was a snow theme, white latticework haphazardly covered with white fluffs (Christmas like "snow" decoration.)  The color versions are OK but I though the selective focus to not be pleasing for the wildlife purists, hence my decision to create some abstraction and mystery with high key b&w.  Here is one taken further back with more dof, which shows more detail in the background rendering.  Well, in colour, it is just an ordinary Barred Owl.

[elsa hoffmann]

nothing ordinary about that bird. These bird kind of look hug-able.

[charlie]

  ...but I though the selective focus to not be pleasing for the wildlife purists, hence my decision to create some abstraction and mystery with high key b&w.

I've found that it's never a good idea to please the purists.

These are portraits in my view, not wildlife photographs. 

[Eb]

I've found that it's never a good idea to please the purists.

These are portraits in my view, not wildlife photographs.

Exactly!  Hence not the business of wildlife purists!  Had I left things as natural, then the images would be judged accordingly.

[Eb]

Wow, great comments by all!  I appreciate those helpful reactions to an experiment.  Thanks, Elsa, Jan, Bjørn, Jacques, Akira, John, Jakov, Simone and Erik!  To those that feel the eyes should be further accentuated by darkening, yes, that is what I had done and I agree that it should be taken further. 

I have updated the images on Pbase.  The links to the above posted now also automatically update to reflect my edits which is mainly the darkening of the eyes.  No. 1, 2, 4, 6 have been printed, but I may not use no.6 in the group because the soft focus used does not match up with the rest.  Thanks, once more!