Razorbill

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

A razorbill from the Farne Islands. Light NR, slight crop, sharpened. I rarely go vertical but did here to avoid some other birds. BG is water.

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 300 f/4 PF
Specs: 1/1000 ISO 1600 f/6.3

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[John Mack]

Solid portrait of this Razorbill. Nice pose and good detail as well. Like the rock perch and that great background.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Alex, quite a nice portrait and good you retain the very fine detail in the plumage. Like the fact you have the head turned towards you, but I'm wondering if say f/9 for some added DoF for the bill may have helped???? Personally I would try to get a bit more tonal depth and detail (not sharpening) in the rock, it's nice and adds IMHO. I might also just add some more blue for the sea, but just a touch and be careful it doesn't affect the subject, may be do it separately, not Globally? Nice exposure on the Black & White plumage, basic levels & contrast will kill things if you apply any more, but using two Alpha Channels with Curves & Levels combinations, just gives things a subtle boost, pulls out more detail without addition sharpening (you'll see in the back feathers) and it doesn't chock any deep shadows or Blacks, stuff to avoid and doesn't make the image look dark & heavy.

One thing though Alex, your sharpening matey :bg3::w3. There is a massive, (albeit soft halo spread around the bird), but also a more harsher halo around parts of the subject generated from sharpening, if you are using LR in Raw then use it for Exporting too.

TFS
Steve

[Daniel Cadieux]

Vertical was the way to go here, regardless of other birds outside the frame, good call. Nice details and exposure. Perfect look-back head angle. I love the crossed wing feathers. I suppose a bit more dof would have been good, but I am OK with it as is too.

[Isaac Grant]

Very nice view of this Razorbill with a perfect look back head angle. I'd love a shot like this. I do feel your processing is off on this one Alex. The bird has a bit of a washed out look to me. The whites of the upper chest have no details and the blacks do not look black enough to me. Even the rock does not have enough detail. I did a quick redo here to try and bring out more definition in the whites and blacks, to lower the exposure of the whites, to add a bit more tone to the blue background and to bring out some detail in the rock as well. As I always say, doing this on the downsized file is not ideal and probably introduces noise that would not happen when working on the full res tiff. I think you have a really good file here that I would go back to the RAW and start over on. Regarding the halo, did you do a highlight adjustment at the very end of your processing? If so, that can cause a halo.

[Alex Becker]

Hi all, much appreciate the feedback and taking the time to do the RPs.

I didn't even notice that halo! It looks very faint on my screen but now that it's mentioned I can see it. I think it must've been from a final curves adjustment. It's funny I have a razorbill file from last year that I struggled equally to edit in similar light conditions.

I reset the RAW and started again trying to keep in mind your suggestions. I gave it a couple different tries and maybe at this point have just been staring at it too long, but fingers crossed this is an improvement. I don't see a halo on this version, but I think there may be posterization here that isn't in the tiff. It could maybe go a bit brighter overall, but the whites on the upper chest read 235 on tiff.

Thanks again all, really appreciate it,

[Isaac Grant]

Bird looks much better now Alex. The blacks and whites still look to have a slight blue cast to me.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Alex the RP is better, however yes you still have some marginal halo along the back of the subject which I can only assume is from sharpening, did you get my email?

The bill has signs also of slight blown highlights in the white strip and in the very darkest of the blacks there is clipping (both marginal) but if printed it may not matter too much, just depends. The Whites are bang on 90.2 : 90.2 : 90.2 and the only slight variants nearer the rocks which might be some reflective colour.

Cheers
Steve

[Alex Becker]

Thanks again both, much appreciated. I'll work on the blues in the blacks and whites.

Steve, I did -- thanks a lot. Were you checking the halo with the Gamma correction in exposure? I'm thinking now that the halo may be from my selection / background adjustments rather than sharpening, so I need to revisit that and see if I can narrow that down. I might be able to bush down the exposure slightly on that white strip on the bill. Also I think you're off to SA? Enjoy! and can't wait to see some great images from the trip.

Thanks again guys, your comments were very helpful,

Alex