Black-headed heron

[Elmar Venter]

Another black-headed heron. I will appreciate all crits and comments. I have a question about applying noise reduction on the background. As you can see between the top part of the feathers on the left wing as well as between the toes there is a slight smudge. This appears for the first time when I do noise reduction. Any ideas on how I can avoid this?

ISO 500
f8
1/1600

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

the light looks great...beautiful wing position too!

[Arthur Morris]

How are you selecting the BKGR???

I like the spread wings, the SH, and the hanging feet (and pose), but as you were working off the light angle the left side of the bird's head is in dark shadow.

[Elmar Venter]

Thanks Manos and Arthur for your comments. Arthur, I select the background using the "magic wand tool". I agree, the dark shadow is a dissapointment.

[David Fletcher]

Elmar! Re Artie's comment are u selecting bg then going to modify and contract by 1px. That'll move the selection away from the subject. (When I sharpen I'll select bg, inverse and then select contract by 1px and this principal is the reverse application. my 2 rand..), :) The alternative is to go around the entire subject with the clone and blend.

[Elmar Venter]

Thanks David, much appreciated. I need to improve my post processing skills.

[David Fletcher]

Thanks David, much appreciated. I need to improve my post processing skills.
No worries mate, :). That's the beauty of the forum. We all benefit from input. Might be tips on PS, might be insight on image skills etc, but is a win/win for those that participate.

[Ben Egbert]

I like this shot. Too bad about the head shadows.

The way I do NR is to apply it globally on its own layer, then erase it from the bird. In most cases the dark areas of the bird need NR too. I stay away from edges when erasing to avoid halos. In some cases I do a 50% NR to the entire image (my 50D is pretty noisy especially when cropped) and then do another just to the sky at 100%.

[Elmar Venter]

Thanks Ben for the advice, much appreciated. Will certainly try it out.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Elmar, I see the smudge by the alula on the near wing, but you must have made a really bad selection for the smudge to have been caused by NR....

If you start from scratch be sure to zoom in and check all the edges. Once you see that you have made a good selection, use Refine Edge with Smooth and Feather set at 1 and all the rest at zero. Then put the BKGR on its own layer, run NR, and check the edges at magnification.

[Elmar Venter]

Thanks Arthur, really appreciate that. (I have ordered your book and CD - cant wait to read it all up).

[Arthur Morris]

Elmar! Re Artie's comment are u selecting bg then going to modify and contract by 1px. That'll move the selection away from the subject. (When I sharpen I'll select bg, inverse and then select contract by 1px and this principal is the reverse application. my 2 rand..), :) The alternative is to go around the entire subject with the clone and blend.

Hi David, Thanks for pitching in hear. While the standard advice is to contract the BKGR selection by one pixel I have found that even this small contraction can yield a small halo in your optimized file. In most cases, I have been getting perfect results with zero contraction and the Refine Edge settings mentioned above. And that even when I add a one pixel Guassian blur to the NR. (The latter really smooths out the noise.)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Arthur, really appreciate that. (I have ordered your book and CD - cant wait to read it all up).

Thank you Elmar. I neglected to send you a big time welcome. I had been away for about ten days and am thrilled to see all of the new South African photographers who have come aboard here while I was gone. Your group is beginning to rival our wonderful contingent from India!

And thanks of course for your membership support.

As for the two books, ABP and ABP II, while reading them both is a good plan, it would be wise to use them as resources to be consulted contstantly, to be read and re-read, and to be studied until all of the principles become 2nd nature. On my trips, I constantly run into folks who have both books but who have not mastered even the basic concepts. On the recent Panama trip for example, everyone had both books but when I began teaching Flash as Main Light in the field with a great bird right in front of us, few knew what the heck I was talking about.

In ABP, the original, serious folks need to study the chapter on exposure theory until they really get it. (The principles involved with digital are exactly the same as they were with film.) In the CD book, Exposure Simplified, Flash Simplified, and Advanced Composition and Image Design fall into the same category.

Once you master the basics of Image Optimization (in ABP II), you would surely find our Digital Basics File to be a huge help; the original DB is in the CD book but a separate purchase of DB gets you the many times updated version and includes free updates for life.

My pet rant is that too many folks think that simply buying a lens for $7 or $8K and a $3K camera body will make them a good photographer; few are willing to put in the time to study. And you guys and girls are really lucky: when I was starting more than 26 years ago, there was little good information around (and none on exposure...)

My goal has always been to see folks take advantage of these and other resources and to improve their skills and their images.

[Elmar Venter]

Thank you for the welcome, Arthur. I must admit that I have been little more than a week or so on BPN and it is a fantastic community. I will certainly take your advice on working through the material - I can't wait to receive it! Thanks for sharing all years of knowledge.

[Arthur Morris]

You are most welcome sir. Do you know John Bryant? He is an excellent nature photographer from George.

ps; Be sure to check out today's blog post for some great tips on composition: http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/

[Elmar Venter]

Although I do not know John Bryant I had a look at his website and found it very inspirational. Thanks for the link to the blog - there is a wealth of information on your website (perhaps I should take a few days leave from work to get through all my ABP material once it arrives :D).

[Arthur Morris]

Good work on finding John's web site. He is a really nice man. You should get in touch with him. And yes, lots to study <smile>