Lesser Coucal

[Ihtisham Kabir]

This one came out of nowhere as I was leaving a birding scene at dusk catching me unprepared. I underexposed the image severely. Also, there was a headphone wire dangling from the leg which I clone-healed out (in subsequent shots the wire is gone - he dropped it I suppose.) I have been trying for several months to get a good shot of one of these without much luck.

I am wondering if it is worth putting in some heavy-duty PS work to clean up this image (and this would be a pro not me doing the work.) I have done basic levels, some nr, and slight color correction but I know more expert time spent with PS would improve it somewhat.

It's not *that* rare around here, but very very shy and jumps into the bushes at the first sign of interest. So to get another like this will take me several months at least.

1/1600 s/ f4/ ISO 4000/ 1dm4+500mmf4II.

Thanks for any thoughts, comments, critiques, etc. Ihtisham

[Randy Stout]

Ihtisham:

As hard as it is sometimes to let go of an image that you have been trying to capture, I am afraid this one can't be improved enough to be truly presentable, regardless of the photoshop work. Noise, lack of detail, angled away slightly.

I do like the full downstroke pose, the feet showing.

So, I would say, use it for inspiration to keep trying, but don't expect to be able to save it.

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the pose, but the IQ has suffered greatly here, the image is soft and has no details at all.

I doubt if it can be saved but do you have the RAW file?

[David Salem]

Randy and Arash are right on all the aspects of this photo. Don't waste your time working this image as it has to many flaws to fix. Spend your time outdoors trying to perfect your exposure and flight technique instead of working on an image that wasn't exposed properly.
I don't do much PP on my images but I am critical about getting everything as right as possible "In Camera". I stress this to my friends and clients and once you master this aspect, the rest is a piece of cake. I know he caught you by surprise and it looked to be pretty dark when you shot this. Keep working it!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Ihtisham, this is what I call nearly shot, it was nearly in focus and it was nearly in the right position but it wasn't exposed correctly so at the risk of being repetitive I would say it is alright to practice some PP skills with but as the old expression goes you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. It will never be sharp and it will always be flying away from you. Hope I don't sound too brusque it is not intended.:w3

[Arthur Morris]

Why such a tight crop?? a

[Ihtisham Kabir]

Arash, Yes, I have the RAW file... did you want to take a look?

Randy, Arash, David, Jonathan, Many thanks for your feedback. Sometimes you just gotta cut the umbilical cord and move forward. Sometimes it takes several other voices to convince you of this. Ihtisham

[Ihtisham Kabir]

Hi Artie, no reason in particular other than it seemed to fit in the square format (which I need) - I will try a looser crop to see if that works. Ihtisham

[arash_hazeghi]

Arash, Yes, I have the RAW file... did you want to take a look?

Randy, Arash, David, Jonathan, Many thanks for your feedback. Sometimes you just gotta cut the umbilical cord and move forward. Sometimes it takes several other voices to convince you of this. Ihtisham

yes post the RAW so we can see what the original looked like

[Ihtisham Kabir]

I tried uploading both CR2 and dng - got an error message "files uploaded were too large to process".

[arash_hazeghi]

I tried uploading both CR2 and dng - got an error message "files uploaded were too large to process".

you can't upload RAW files here, you need to upload them to a different hosting site and post the link

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie, no reason in particular other than it seemed to fit in the square format (which I need) - I will try a looser crop to see if that works. Ihtisham

The greater the crop, the poorer the resulting image quality... a