Great spotted woodpecker

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 1Dx Canon 500 mm F L IS Auto ISO 1000 1/2500 sec f8
ACR & PS CC

Taken from my hide in the back garden. Ground peanuts and suet used for bait. You have to be quick before the bill becomes too messed up.
I am curious to read what you think about the plumage detail, I used a "new" processing regime.

[Bill Dix]

Great look. Nice pose, good colors and detail on the bird and the interesting perch (marred slightly by the baited/pecked area). To me the plumage detail looks good and sharp without looking crunchy. Would be interested to know about your "new" regime. The eye looks a little funky to me.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great look. Nice pose, good colors and detail on the bird and the interesting perch (marred slightly by the baited/pecked area). To me the plumage detail looks good and sharp without looking crunchy. Would be interested to know about your "new" regime. The eye looks a little funky to me.
Hi Bill thanks for the feedback, glad you were happy with the plumage, I will PM you with the details, I don't want to appear to be advertising, the method is not mine but having read the instructions I made an Action and set the opacity to about 10%

[Glenn Pure]

Jonathan, I like this one lots. The detail on the bird looks excellent to me as does the perch detail. Hopefully you will provide the processing details more publicly in due course? Background is perfect and the overall colour, tone and look of the frame are great. One I'd be very proud to have in my collection. Thanks for sharing.

[gail bisson]

I think the processing looks fine. It is hard to comment on "the new way" vs "your old way" without you posting the same image with each process.
I think the eye looks a bit odd ( perhaps it is the nictitating membrane but I don't think so)
I really like the perch and the visible tongue. It is too bad that some of the perch has been broken off or pecked off by the bird but certainly not a deal breaker!
I really like the BG but when I first opened the image my eye was immediately drawn to the white area below the perch. I would blend and soften the edges of that whitish strip.
Anyway, I hope you post this image with your old processing method so I can see the difference,
Gail

[Tomasz Zawadzki]

Nice woodpecker. I also would like to see old method result to be able to see the difference. Do you have a little bit more of the bottom of the frame? I would prefer to have woodpecker higher in the frame.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Here is one done by my usual process, it is very similar and I think it doesn't really prove much one way or another because both are developed using a mask in which the opacity can be varied so I have to say one day I may vary the opacity more than another. (I have not tidied this one up at all this is just as the image was taken)
Also I am currently having problems with my new glasses, hopefully I will get them sorted out this week!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Jon, I have looked at both images several times, even imported them into Lightroom so I could study them side by side. The differences are subtle, nothing jumps out like an a hah moment. I guess I would go with whichever is easier to do in the workflow. In Lightroom now I probably use the simplest workflow possible.

Been there done that with eyeglasses. I wear progressive lenses and have bent the nose pieces a couple of times, a struggle to get them back to the correct position.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Jon, I have looked at both images several times, even imported them into Lightroom so I could study them side by side. The differences are subtle, nothing jumps out like an a hah moment. I guess I would go with whichever is easier to do in the workflow. In Lightroom now I probably use the simplest workflow possible.

Been there done that with eyeglasses. I wear progressive lenses and have bent the nose pieces a couple of times, a struggle to get them back to the correct position.

Thanks Jo, the reason for my investigating the alternative details action is so that I will have something when Nik filters is no longer available for use. For the PC I use reading glasses, the varifocals are for general use.

[Glenn Pure]

I can't pick a lot of difference either, Jon. Can you outline what your old workflow involves particularly in relation to detail preservation and handling as I didn't think Nik was supported in the latest version of PS CC?

[Mike Poole]

Lovely frame of him Jon, and a different pose as well instead of the more regular vertical shots. The tongue is a nice touch, and now Gail mentions the white patch its caught my eye too!

Mike

[Jonathan Ashton]

Mike I made several versions and in most I got rid of the white area obviously forgot in this one..... senior moment I reckon

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jon, I would eventually get to this image. Great IQ overall, and captured in nice soft light. I like the behaviour showing the Woodpecker at work, and with his beak full of bark, and that we also have a glimpse of his tongue. I do like the linchen covered perch.