# Short-eared Owl



## cre8foru (Mar 13, 2014)

These photos are probably the most challenging Ive ever shot. This bird has been appearing daily, right at sundown. This past weekend I made the hour long drive from Atlanta to try my luck since I've never even seen a Short-eared Owl. He appeared right on schedule at about 7:20 in very low light. I got these around 7:30. 
I had auto ISO capped at 4000 and thats where it went with my shutter speed at 1/1250. The most difficult thing was finding focus in the very low light. I shot over a hundred photos and while they are not technically the best I've taken I think they may be my favorites. After it was to dark to shoot I just used my binoculars to watch the Owl hunt. What a show.




Short-eared Owl by cre8foru2009, on Flickr




Short-eared Owl by cre8foru2009, on Flickr




Short-eared Owl by cre8foru2009, on Flickr


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## Sea dawg1978 (Mar 13, 2014)

Cool shots.. How do you deal with the noise at such a high iso?  My 60d will get up to 3200 but the noise is horrible.


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## cre8foru (Mar 13, 2014)

Sea dawg1978 said:


> Cool shots.. How do you deal with the noise at such a high iso?  My 60d will get up to 3200 but the noise is horrible.



I ran noise reduction software. Its called NoiseWare.


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## BornToHuntAndFish (Mar 14, 2014)

Really catches our eyes.  Thx for posting.


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## CowetaLonghorn (Mar 14, 2014)

These are really cool. What focus mode are you in? Is it al servo? I've been practicing every night with my high energy pointer in hopes of getting good enough to take shots like these. Really enjoy your posts.


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## cre8foru (Mar 14, 2014)

CowetaLonghorn said:


> These are really cool. What focus mode are you in? Is it al servo? I've been practicing every night with my high energy pointer in hopes of getting good enough to take shots like these. Really enjoy your posts.



Single point continuous.


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## Hoss (Mar 14, 2014)

Great job under tough tough lighting.  I love those shots.

Hoss


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## BuckMKII (Mar 15, 2014)

Awesome series of captures!


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## Sea dawg1978 (Mar 15, 2014)

Does noiseware soften the photos a lot?


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## cre8foru (Mar 15, 2014)

Sea dawg1978 said:


> Does noiseware soften the photos a lot?



It smooths away noise. It has settings with preview, so you can control the look of the photo. My camera is full frame and handles noise pretty well too.


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## wvdawg (Mar 15, 2014)

Wow!  Awesome captures!


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## Crickett (Mar 16, 2014)

wvdawg said:


> Wow!  Awesome captures!



X2


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## GAJoe (Mar 16, 2014)

Hoss said:


> Great job under tough tough lighting.  I love those shots.
> 
> Hoss



What he said again!


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## quinn (Mar 16, 2014)

Awesome shots cre8!


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## pdsniper (Mar 17, 2014)

Wow those are wall hangers, i love owl picture I have only gotten lucky enough to get good shots of one twice they are hard to get I got one of a Ma Ma Barred Owl one day and the babby the next that was cool


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## Alicyn (Mar 28, 2014)

Awesome! Really cool.


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## BERN (Apr 2, 2014)

Have you compared noise aware to LR? I can take a lot of noise out with LR but as Sea Dawg pointed out there is a threshold were it starts to make the image look like a watercolor or similar. Playing with the radius/etc... doesn't quite get me there. 

That's only  a problem with my rebel. My full frame doesn't have near that problem. I took a nature workshop where I was taught to put the big lens on the crop sensor and the shorter focal lengths on the FF for landscapes. On the other hand, I have seen some crop results where the IQ is better cropping the FF than shooting with the 1.6 crop sensor. Since you are shooting a FF, what is your experience/suggestion?


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## cre8foru (Apr 2, 2014)

BERN said:


> Have you compared noise aware to LR? I can take a lot of noise out with LR but as Sea Dawg pointed out there is a threshold were it starts to make the image look like a watercolor or similar. Playing with the radius/etc... doesn't quite get me there.
> 
> That's only  a problem with my rebel. My full frame doesn't have near that problem. I took a nature workshop where I was taught to put the big lens on the crop sensor and the shorter focal lengths on the FF for landscapes. On the other hand, I have seen some crop results where the IQ is better cropping the FF than shooting with the 1.6 crop sensor. Since you are shooting a FF, what is your experience/suggestion?



My camera has the options to shoot DX but I always shoot full frame and then crop in post. Id rather control the crop myself, rather than let the camera do it. Ive never used Lightroom but Ive heard good reviews. Noiseware is a plug-in Ive always used in Photoshop. You're right though. There is a fine line when using noise reduction software. If you over do it you smooth away details.


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## Bulldawg76 (Apr 14, 2014)

awesome images.  ever thought about renting a big fast telephoto lens for that owl? 

i rely on high iso a lot.  couldn't ever get NR software to do right.  this tutorial helped and is pretty impressive although it is specifically about DeNoise.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1At_55XW0I&list=UURe2W-32N-_uStDULAEdyKA


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## cre8foru (Apr 17, 2014)

Bulldawg76 said:


> awesome images.  ever thought about renting a big fast telephoto lens for that owl?
> 
> i rely on high iso a lot.  couldn't ever get NR software to do right.  this tutorial helped and is pretty impressive although it is specifically about DeNoise.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1At_55XW0I&list=UURe2W-32N-_uStDULAEdyKA


Nah not really. I just bought a new lens though that is a lot faster and sharper than the one I had.


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## Kadiddlehopper (Apr 18, 2014)

Beautiful work Rich !


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## Plumbergeek (Apr 19, 2014)

Great shots Rich! Is single point continuous giving you better results as opposed to 9 or 21? I get a lot of micro hunting if the scene is low contrast or small subject?


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## cre8foru (Apr 20, 2014)

Plumbergeek said:


> Great shots Rich! Is single point continuous giving you better results as opposed to 9 or 21? I get a lot of micro hunting if the scene is low contrast or small subject?


 I use 9 point or 21 point when I know Im shooting birds in flight but mainly I stick to single point. Just seems better for most situations.


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## GAJoe (Apr 20, 2014)

cre8foru said:


> Nah not really. I just bought a new lens though that is a lot faster and sharper than the one I had.



What'd ya get? 
I visited your Flickr pages; great images indeed!


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## cre8foru (Apr 22, 2014)

GAJoe said:


> What'd ya get?
> I visited your Flickr pages; great images indeed!



Nikon 300mm F4 with Nikon 1.4 TC


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## howardsrock (Apr 23, 2014)

Great shots.  Visited your Flickr photos too.  Fantastic!


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## cre8foru (Apr 23, 2014)

howardsrock said:


> Great shots.  Visited your Flickr photos too.  Fantastic!



Thanks.


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