Red-winged Blackbird

[Bob Lund]

Friends at BPN, Your critiques are very much welcomed!

My usual steps in post processing an image are as follows (CS2);
1) Increase Highlight to pull the detail out of the subject using Shadow/Highlight
2) Exposure increase or decrease as needed
3) Almost always increase saturation a small amount
4) Adjust contrast to make the subject pop
5) Sharpen using 'Unsharpen mask'
6) Reduce noise
7) Crop
8) Resize image

Here's a BIG question, is there a better way? Does the order of these processing elements make a difference? To be honest, I've been a 'hacker' for many years, and now I'm trying to learn how to post process properly to get the best possible image.

I'm also going through the learning with a new camera body. I can get frustrated from time to time :cool:

Lightroom
Photoshop CS2
Model: NIKON D3
FocalLength: 600.0mm
FocalLength35efl: 600.0mm (35mm equivalent: 600.0mm)
ISO: 2000
ExposureTime: 1/800"
Aperture: F5.6
MaxAperture: F5.7
ExposureBiasValue: 0
ExposureProgram: Shutter speed priority AE
MeteringMode: Multi-segment
Flash: No Flash
WhiteBalance: Auto

[Tony Whitehead]

Hi Bob , Nice pose and action with the bird calling. Regarding this shot I think a more room above the bird and little more to left and below would look better. There looks to be a bluish cast but I am on an uncalibrated monitor at work at the moment so the problem could be at my end. Is this a very cropped image? The image looks soft and I see a broad but soft sharpening halo around the bird (visible even on the thumbnail). I think this may relate to your workflow of sharpening prior to cropping and resizing. Sharpening needs to be done with regard to the output size, resolution and viewing method (i.e - sharpening fpor low res web viewing is different from what would be required for a 6x4 print and for a 8x12 print). Generally it should be your last step in preparing an image for a specific purpose. I am no expert in this but feel you should ideally use your histogram to expose to capture the highlights without over-exposing them - the Nikon metering in the D300 (so I assume D3) seems very good at this but does need some compensation in certain situations. I find active d-lighting has reduced my need for a shadow/highlight adjustment but it can be useful to open up dark areas if shooting jpg. If shooting RAW a lot of the adjustment can be done in ACR but am not sure if CS2 supports the D3 - Lightroom does. Arthur Morris' Digital Basics File is an excellent guide to workflow and intial image adjustment.

[Doug Brown]

Tony provides some excellent advice on workflow. I think it helps a great deal to select the bird and put it into its own layer. In that regard, CS3 is a worthy upgrade over CS2; the quick select tool makes selecting the bird very easy in most cases. Here's a quick edit of your original that I took the liberty of reprocessing; additional sharpening, boosted the shadows a bit, adjusted the background, and upped the red & yellow saturation in the blackbird. Dodged the eye too.

[Maxis Gamez]

Love the pose and action. However the heavy crop really takes away from the details. With that said at ISO 2000 this is not bad.

[Lance Warley]

I think Doug's suggestion to put the bird on its own layer is excellent. It will help you avoid the halo usually caused by Shadows&Highlights and also by Sharpening. You can do it in this manner (there are probably a dozen others ways, too):

Select the bird. Decrease your selection 2 pixels. Feather your selection 2 pixels. Invert the selection and mask the rest of the layer.

Now you have a level where you can work on just the bird, but it will still blend with the other layers and avoid halos for you.

[Bob Lund]

Tony, Doug, Maxis, and Lance - Thank you all for taking the time to provide your compliments and excellent suggestions. I have copied all your recommendations into a Word document and will try them all.

It’s great to have found a place where I can get the ‘real stuff’ for improving my photography – Thank you again, Bob

[Scott Linstead]

Just a comment regarding the halo: It is the unfortunate result of using the shadows/highlights tool. It only happens if you use both shadow increase AND highlight reduction on the same image. It will not happen if you use one or the other. Another great reason to put the bird on its own layer -- then you can use shadows/highlight all you want without the telltale halo.

Scott

[Bob Lund]

Thanks Scott, great tip! - Bob