Osprey

[Scott Grant]

Osprey, looking for breakfast....
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3138/2774560689_1850cc1f85_o.jpg

i shot this Saturday morning in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada with my D300, Nikkor 300mm F4 at F5.6, 1/800 sec at ISO 200. for some reason i decided to process this in Photomatrix just for kicks. i must admit that i was surprised at the result of the processing! do you like the outcome? yay or nay?

ps...just before posting i noticed some jaggies on the primary feathers from sharpening. :(

[Doug Brown]

I've not used Photomatrix before. I thought it was used for HDR with multiple exposures. How exactly did you use it here? Nice feather detail, although the darks look a little noisy. Eye contact and sharpness are good. Look forward to hearing back from you. Thanks for posting!

[Scott Grant]

hey doug,

to accomplish this i just drag and drop a single RAW file into photomatrix (i use a MacBook Pro). Photomatrix will convert the image into a pseudo HDR automatically. then you would tonemap the image like you would for a multiple exposure.

i've used Photomatrix for landscapes with multiple exposures, and have even converted a few landscapes using the pseudo method, but again, never for a bird.

you've already noticed the drawback...noise in the shadows. i've applied some noise reduction to the darker portions of the underwings with Capture NX2's section points. for sharpening i used both USM and high pass, again, selectively applied with selection points.

[Markus Jais]

there seems to be some noise in the secondaries. maybe this is just my monitor.

otherwise a fantastic shot. great light and beautiful blue sky. wonderful detail in the feathers.

Markus

[Alan Melle]

You can also process your raw files to add or reduce exposure and save the results as separate TIFF files and feed those multiple TIFF files to Photomatix. Adjustments one stop apart usually work very well.

[Scott Grant]

there seems to be some noise in the secondaries. maybe this is just my monitor.

otherwise a fantastic shot. great light and beautiful blue sky. wonderful detail in the feathers.

Markus

thank you Markus. the noise is not a result of your monitor...it is a result of processing. read the above posts for more info. ;)

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Stunning flight pose Scott and wonderful detail on the underside. I really like the eye contact and head tilt you captured in this image. thanks for sharing all the info on photomatrix.. Extremely interesting.