Sanhill crane preening

[Desmond Chan]

While flipping through The Art of Bird Photography II, I came across a photo that reminds me of one of my own...but of a lower quality :o

Anyhow, I converted it to black and white and applied some toning. Please tell me if it works for you.

S5, 200-400 @ 350mm; f4 1/1000 sec; ISO 1600; shutter priority mode +2; no flash.

So, what say you ??

[Dan Brown]

Hey Desmond, Love the sharpness and the many values of gray! I see noise in the BG. I ran Noise Ninja on the BG only, with increased strength, without adding sharpness. Here's it is.

Dan Brown,
Sacramento

[Desmond Chan]

I see noise in the BG. I ran Noise Ninja on the BG only, with increased strength, without adding sharpness. Here's it is.



Hmmm...you're right Dan. Thanks !! I suspect the noise shows up more after the toning. The bg now looks a bit different though :)

[Dan Brown]

You are right Desmond. Here it is again with much less NR strength. It could use a bit more NR in the upper right corner, I see in the re-repost. Dan

[Desmond Chan]

You are right Desmond. Here it is again with much less NR strength. Dan

Thanks again, Dan. I've never used mask after applying noise reduction (I myself use Neat Image). Learned something from you today !

[Dan Brown]

Your welcome. Noise Ninja has a "noise brush" that you can add or erase the noise reduction selectively. This plugin adds sharpening automatically and I almost always reduce this to zero, as I don't want this added sharpening. Dan

[Alfred Forns]

Good work on the noise Ninja Dan !!! Btw do you have the sharpen turned off in the settings?

Desomond great idea for this image !!! I like it a lot Might tweak the local contrast a bit. btw remember on preening images its best to have the head parallel to the film plane, they just look better.

................. one super enhancement you could do here is bring back just a little of the wing path colors using a layer !!! Leave it all B&W with the little color on the wings and maybe the red of the head !!! Could be interesting !!!!

[Dan Brown]

Thanks Alfred. On the sharpening, No, I do it for each image moving the sliders. I will look into changing the settings, that would be much easier. Dan

[Gail Spitler]

Very interesting image and enlightening discussion. Thanks guys

Gail

[Alfred Forns]

Dan I would set it for ZERO sharpening and just take care of it at the end !!!!

[Harold Davis]

love the idea of painting the color back in on the head and the wing patch!!!! would be very cool. great thread!!

[Desmond Chan]

Re-worked it a bit.

[Julie Kenward]

Love the repost! those brown feathers really set your eye. Nice!

[Gus Cobos]

I love the "ALMOST BLACK and WHITE" effect giving it a splash of selective colors in just the right places...:D

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great effects on this one Desmond. Very cool feeling to it. also excellent re post, love the color effect on the shot.

[Katie Rupp]

Very, very nice! It looks like pewter with bronze or maybe copper on the wings.