Barred owl

This is a barred owl I photographed during my wildlife workshop last weekend. The original background showed the bird perched in front of a stand of messy and visually distracting trees. I used a wide angle lens, and took the shot from only 24 inches away, to make the owl disproportionately large compared to the background. To me, this adds drama to the portrait. To give the image a sense of place where the environment is just as important as the subject in making a strong visual statement, I replaced the background with a landscape from the Great Smokies National Park. I used Topaz Mask AI to make a selection around the bird because feathers, like hair, are a serious challenge. Blurring or smudging the edges of a subject doesn't work at all. The software did an excellent job in retaining the fine detail at the tips of the feathers. My settings for the owl were 1/250, f/11, and 2000 ISO. I used a 16-35mm lens.