Owl prints, are these photos good enough to offer as prints?

[Janner]

I recently shot some short eared owls and I've had a few requests for prints. I selected a few I liked and these are the ones I'm considering offering. I would like to know if you think these are good enough to offer as prints?

[Marko]

First off - welcome to the forum!

Now down to business. If you've already had requests then the answer is yes...but to my eye the images still need work.

There is enough photoshopping in these images that for me, these are no longer photos they are mixed media as these images could not have been made without significant computer enhancement. In particular, The cliff/ledge that the bird is on looks fake. I'm afraid I can also see the photoshop work in the mouse shot but in a few of the other images as well. It's easy to see that the mouse is outlined in grey and is therefore not well blended into the background. Hope that may help.

[Janner]

Hi Marko, thank you so much for responding, I really appreciate it. The photoshop/lightroom work that was done was to remove some branches and change the sky from dark blue to light. I felt as if there was way too much colour going on with the sky being so blue and no clouds in the sky. I also used Topaz clean to enhance and sharpen the images and this may be why the branch the owl is on, looks fake and could be why there's an outline around the mouse or the mouse outline may be a result of changing the sky colour. I didn't replace the background, I desaturated the blue and lightened it. I'm going to go back to the originals keeping in mind what you've said.

[Marko]

Cool glad it helped.
Not sure if you want to, but speaking from experience, most of us would like to see the naked originals...

[Janner]

Cool glad it helped.
Not sure if you want to, but speaking from experience, most of us would like to see the naked originals...

I have no problem showing you the originals. These have no adjustments other than the crop.

[Janner]

Yes, the outline is due to the saturation and luminance shift in the sky, I went through my history to check.

[Iguanasan]

The originals, for me, are much better. I understand what you were going for with the changes but unfortunately they felt overdone. I'd start with the originals again and go with a much softer touch. Clone out the twigs and guano stains on the tree with a healing brush and then adjust levels and sharpness a bit. That's about all I would do. Again, this is just my take on the images. It's your artwork. It's your decision. Excellent images to start with though. Excellent captures.

[Janner]

Thank you for your reply, I started from scratch again yesterday. Originally, I didn't like the blue sky but I'm going to stick with it and de-saturate it a little. The other major issue was I downloaded Topaz Clean and loved the sharpness the software produced. Unfortunately I lost sight of the other effect it was having on the images. I will post a couple when I'm done. Sadly I believe I'll have to forget about the image with the mouse because I think it's too hard to get rid of all the branches and twigs without it being obvious, at least for me.

[Iguanasan]

Janner, don't give up on that image. The twigs in the background are sufficiently blurred that they don't need to be "cleaned up". I would see if you can get rid of the three on the right that kinda stick out but I wouldn't worry about the ones on the left at all. Try lightening up the shadows on the mouse by about 10%-15% or so. I think that's all you need. I'm far from an expert photo editor myself but I think that's where I would start. Don't try and do everything, just try to do one or two things. It's easier one step at a time.

[Marko]

I have to agree with Iggy - The originals look better! Really digging shot 3