Having a hoot

This shot of a little owl is full of personality, with a good aperture choice

Our reader Laura Bottomley

My photograph was shot on a Canon EOS 1100D with a 300mm lens; I took it at the National Centre for Birds of Prey, Helmsley, Yorkshire. I received a tour and the chance to fly the birds as a gift for my birthday, reflecting my love of photography and birds. It gave me a great opportunity to take photographs of them. This little owl was posing on a post. I dialled in an exposure of 1/1,250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100.

Our expert Andrew James

Little owls are such cute birds, and this one is no exception. I love how their big eyes and bold eyebrows always make them look a bit grumpy!

I know your original shot is taken in landscape format and you’ve cropped it. I think this was the right thing to do, but I’d be inclined to crop it slightly tighter on the left (as shown) so there is more space to the right, where it’s looking.

Your exposure is good. Judging from the contrast in your image it was a very sunny day, which is always likely to cause issues with potentially overexposed highlights. I’d actually prefer the photo to be about a half a stop brighter, as this would lift the green background more and bring out some extra feather detail in the owl, although taking it up a stop would potentially overexposure the highlights if the result isn’t carefully processed.