Great Horned Owl

My first experiment in RAW (DNG) processing in Lightroom. This is an image from the new Zeiss PhotoScope, a spotting scope with an integrated 7mp camera. It has the option to record directly in DNG.

The owl was a gift. I walked up under it’s tree and took a series of images, then climbed the dune at Pajaro Dunes in Watsonville, CA…which put me right at eyelevel with the owl. I had lots of time to experiment with different camera settings.

Zeiss PhotoScope at 1800mm equivalent. F5.6 (approximate) @ 1/35 @ ISO 100.

In Lightroom, after separating the DNG file from it JPEG mate, I chose the “cloudy” preset for color balance and then made it just a bit cooler. Recovery for the highlights, and then additonal highlight modification in the Levels sliders. Blackpoint well to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset with added Detail. Noise Reduction for both Luminance and Color.

From Monterey Bay 09.