Sparrow hawk (F)

[Steve Kaluski]

Going for a change and with the recent overhaul in Lr I thought I would revisit an old file, but not posted, to see what extras I might be able to extract from the file. Certainly in the darks & shadows it seems better balance with more finer detail coming trough. At ISO6400 it's not a big step these days, but it's the depth of detail that the camera can now capture which is still awesome, irrespective these days of what brand you have.

Thanks to those who commented or viewed the last posting.

Steve

Subject: Sparrow hawk (f) (Accipiter nisus)
Location: UK
Camera: Canon EOS R5
Lens: EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM
Exposure: 1/640s at f/7/1 ISO6400
Original format: Portrait, FF width, cropped for presentation
Processed via: LRCC 12.3 & PS 24.4.1


Note: The subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject.
Wood pigeon is from road kill.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Steve, this Sparrow Hawk has been good to you. I think the image looks fantastic, cannot see how it could be improved. Did you use Lightroom's Denoise? Thank you for sharing.

[Steve Kaluski]

Thank you Joe, glad you liked it.

On this one I did, but I adjusted it, as I said previously, depending on the image I may use alternative methods in the start of the conversion. Always apply this adjustment first, if you don’t Lr will bite you.

Ironic that this is applied at the first stage and on the Raw, exactly why I have said apply DN at the raw stage prior to exporting as a Tiff, albeit now it’s first thing and it outputs to a DNG File. :bg3:

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thank you Joe, glad you liked it.

On this one I did, but I adjusted it, as I said previously, depending on the image I may use alternative methods in the start of the conversion. Always apply this adjustment first, if you don’t Lr will bite you.

Ironic that this is applied at the first stage and on the Raw, exactly why I have said apply DN at the raw stage prior to exporting as a Tiff, albeit now it’s first thing and it outputs to a DNG File. :bg3:

Yup, I have changed my workflow applying Denoise as the first step in post-processing. I do zero out the sharpening of 40 that Lightroom applies to the Raw image. I think sharpening increases the noise, so I sharpen after all else has been done.

[Steve Kaluski]

Joe, if you apply DN (Enhance) as the first step, forget anything else you previously did. Once it has output to a DNG you can then do anything you want as you will notice all sliders have reverted to default, you can also apply masking to reduce again, but you must be careful it then doesn’t look hyper smooth/plastic. I haven’t exceed 50% for ISO 12.800 images.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Joe, if you apply DN (Enhance) as the first step, forget anything else you previously did. Once it has output to a DNG you can then do anything you want as you will notice all sliders have reverted to default, you can also apply masking to reduce again, but you must be careful it then doesn’t look hyper smooth/plastic. I haven’t exceed 50% for ISO 12.800 images.

Got it, will do it. Thanks Steve.

[Dorian Anderson]

This looks great, especially the reddish background. It gives this shot a very unique feel. The subject looks very regal and powerful against it.

My current computer is 14 years and only capable of running Mac OS 10.13.6, which came out in Nov 2020. As I haven't been able to utilize recent versions of LR, which require more current OS versions,
I am very interested in these new LR features because I'm *finally* going to get a new machine next week. I will be very interested to follow and learn about your experiences with these various features!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Dorian thanks.

If its a Mac Studio then get yourself a Capt. Kirk seat too, strap yourself in for the ride of your life, because the speed at which it works to is beyond warp speed.

Download all Adobe stuff direct and install fresh, ditto any third party apps that will run, as some may not, but never transfer old software to a new machine, you never know what it holds. Make sure Lr is set up correctly with its Prefs, File handling & Colour settings etc especially if you get PS (which is an ABSOLUTE must) so they both talk the same language and you don't have any miss communication between the two.

Regarding what the new features do, or how to use them then I would strongly suggest you access Adobe tutorials, no one else's. If you apply Denoise, then this is your first port of call, then you work on the DNG file it creates. If you don't, and colour correct, use masks then apply DN, it will bite you in the butt, and the image will look appalling, I mean it, NO short cuts.

Note: Masks are OK, but not the silver bullet, in certain instances it can create artifacts, but it's trial and error, but if you think you can now do all 100% within Lr, it just won't happen.

Probably by the end of next year, both OS & Adobe will make folk upgrade.

Good luck and enjoy the Roller Coaster, it's huge fun.

[Jonathan Ashton]

All looks good to me colours tones composition, tickety boo!

[Steve Kaluski]

All looks good to me colours tones composition, tickety boo!

Thanks, why aren't you posting?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Steve ... very nice overall image , like the majority of the images you posted from the site .
Love the overall color combo with the pleasing BG colors
Subject looks stunning on all counts ...
So no nits from my side , but still cannot pickup anything that you are make better ( evolution :w3) than before .... in general . Might be different with the full res file

Cool shot and nice work

TFS Andreas