Adjusting Photos Utilizing Photoshop

I have posted the picture of the Northern Hawk Owl with its wing folded so only one I was peering out at you on various sites. Originally of the I just did post-processing to bring out the colors and depth of the picture. On one of my sites that I posted a few people liked it but thought that the trees that were behind the owl took away from the picture. When I first shot the picture I was with a group of people and when I was tracking the bird I only had about 10° on either side to track otherwise I would have gotten portions of the people on either side of me in the picture.

Since I have been home with a slight cold this week, I decided I would show my readers two different methods of changing the picture utilizing Photoshop CC.You can also utilize Photoshop 5.

The first method is to isolate the bird on a background of sky and clouds. No matter where I am photographing, if there is an interesting sky and clouds I take pictures of of them and keep them in a background folder so they can be utilized in a bland picture.

Step one

Step two

Step three

Steps 4 5 and 6

Step 7

Finished

The second method is to remove the unwanted objects from the picture.
Step 1

Step 2

Steps 3 and 4

Steps 5 and 6

Animated GIF showing the original and the post processed pictures

 

If you have any questions don't hesitate to email me and I will get back to you as soon as possible to help you

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New England Owls

Eastern Screech Owl photographed at Mount Auburn Cemetery

New England has had a total of 12 different species of owls reported.  Of those twelve,  I have photographed six  of the species and have heard one other in New England.  Of the very rarest owl reported - Burrowing Owl, I photographed the burrowing owl in Florida and in California.  I am hoping to observe and photograph the remaining species.


Great Horned Owl  (Bubo virginianus)

Great-horned Owl photograph that Mount Auburn Cemetery

Great-horned Owl, juvenile, photographed at Great Neck Audubon Sanctuary

Barred Owl  (Strix varia)

Barred Owl photographed at the Boston Public Gardens

Eastern Screech Owl  (Megascops asio)

Eastern Screech Owl photographed at an owl prowl at the Stone Barn, Allens Pond Audubon Sanctuary

Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus)

Snowy Owl photographed at Duxbury Beach

Snowy Owl photographed at Duxbury Beach

Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus)

Short-eared Owl photographed at Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge

Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula)

Northern Hawk Owl photographed at Palmyra Maine

Northern Hawk Owl photographed at Palmyra Maine

I have only heard the Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus) during a bird-a-thon

For the remaining owls: Barn Owl (I have photographed a captive Barn Owl), Long-eared Owl, Boreal Owl, Great Gray Owl; I keep looking at the e- bird news for any information on these owls, so I could plan a trip to try to observe and photograph them.

By the way, here is a photograph of a Burrowing Owl, which I photographed in California and really don't expect to photograph here in New England

Burrowing Owl

Northern Hawk Owl

The Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula) normally lives in the boreal forests of the circumpolar regions of the northern hemisphere.  It is usually non-migratory and is not seen in the lower 48 states.  However, occasionally it will extend down south into upper Minnesota and other states in the northern United States.  The winter irruptions is thought to correlate with high reproductive successes and decrease prey availability.  This is the same reasoning that we are having such an irruption of snowy owls into the United States It has been found in New England, in all of  the northern states. 
The Northern Hawk Owl is primarily diurnal and its behavior is different compared to other northern hemisphere owls.  Its behavior resembles more that of the accipiter hawks, and with its long tail, it has been related to the Cooper's Hawk.  It will perch atop prominent trees where it uses its keen hearing and sight to locate prey.

Presently, there is one that has been reported in Maine and another one in Vermont.  Thanks to my good friend Christopher, who gave me directions to where the bird is, I traveled up to Palmyra Maine to find the Northern Hawk Owl.  We left my home in Massachusetts at 4:30 AM and arrived at the site at around 8:30 AM.  At the site, we did meet some other birders/photographers and we combined our resources and searched all around the area.  For over 2 hours, we searched with no sign of the owl.  Suddenly one of the group saw the owl land on a birch tree very near us. That started over an hour of observing and photographing this beautiful bird.  It flew out of the heavier wooded area and landed in the top of a tree.  Great views were had of the bird, the only problem being no sun in the sky was very cloudy, so the photographs were flat, however, utilizing post processing, utilizing NIK software, especially Color Efex Pro 4 and VIVEZA.  We were able to get excellent pictures.