Image of Great Horned Owl was taken in Florida with side lighting in the late afternoon sun. This background was very busy so I created a large radial mask and inverted it to darken the edges all around. In addition, a linear gradient was added at the top to even darken the image a bit more because it was a bit light at top. Much to my dismay it took a lot of masking to even out the lighting and shadows on the bird because of the direction of the light in the image (but it was good practice). As you look at the bird, I removed the red eye on the bird's right side. However, even though there was no red eye in the left eye, it appeared as though there was a bit of red eye. So, in order to make it look more natural, I created in Masking two object selection brushes, one to darken the inner eye so it look dark brown and the outer part of the eye lighter to look ocher (golden?). And, here I thought, this was going to be an easy image to process. My goal was to make the bird stand out a little from the background but not too much in order to be separate from the busy background….hence, that’s why the darker background. Suggestions as to improve the image?
3 comments posted
Sanford Morse
How did he get a red eye? Nice job processing the eyes. I would straighten the bird. Maybe he was sitting that way, but I find it distracting. The first thing I noticed. Posted: 04/10/2026 21:02:40
Henriette Brasseur
It's been awhile since this image was taken but most likely I had one of those flash heads with a device on the front of the flash. This device would project the flash further than using a flash alone. Apparently when the flash hit the eye, it created the "red eye". I tried your suggestion about straightening out the owl and it does look better. I didn't think about straightening out the owl because that is the way the branch went up at an angle. Posted: 04/11/2026 02:41:58
Gordon Watson
Henriette, I think you have done what you can to improve the original - the main point was removing the unnatural red eye. Maybe a touch more lightening of the bird, and I would suggest a crop in from bottom left to put the bird central in the frame. There is some nice evening light and it is good that it is looking straight at you. It is a little hidden in the foliage, but wildlife never does what you want - usually birds turn their back on me as soon as I point my camera at them! Posted: 04/12/2026 22:05:44
