Repost with Nik Processes of Environmental Rhino near Krueger Park 2010

[Steve Uffman]

After watching Laurie Rubin's Nik on demand video on "Enhancing the Animals of Africa", I was motivated to go back and work on some of the images that I took March 2010 when I first got a digital camera. Amazing the changes you can make using the software and implementing a few of her tricks. Seems I am going to go back through the best of that trip and redo them all.


Canon 7d 100-400mm at 100, Av mode 1/60, ISO 1000....do remember I wanted a bit of motion to add a 'sense of menace' ....would definitely shoot differently now....but have reworked several old shots and they seem more lively after running the Nik Processes

[Jay Gould]

Steve, it would be interesting to see the before and after images and an explanation of the changes.

This Rhino does pop from the background; I wonder if it is a bit too sharpened? I am seeing a white thin line along the entire back as compared to an actual halo outlining the back.

This may be what you want; the skin certainly shows the roughness and age.

[Robert Amoruso]

Steve,

Try this one on for size. PSCS5 with adjustments below.

1) PSCS Menu: Adjustments, B&W
2) Local Contrast Enhancement using USM on BG copy at 20/50/0.
3) Sharpened for web.

My preference would have been no grass at snoot.

I like the blurred legs.

Oversharpened, too detailed? That is the look I was going for. He seems to demand it. :)

[Jay Gould]

Sorry Bob, just doesn't have the POP of the color version. IMHO

[Steve Uffman]

Steve, it would be interesting to see the before and after images and an explanation of the changes.

This Rhino does pop from the background; I wonder if it is a bit too sharpened? I am seeing a white thin line along the entire back as compared to an actual halo outlining the back.

This may be what you want; the skin certainly shows the roughness and age.

AHA Moment. As I am trying to get the Sharpening skill in my repertoire, I Attended a Nik Webinar this morning on Dfine and Sharpener Pro 3.0....learned that if I sharpen for the web, I should resize for the web before running Pro Sharpener for display or I will not get satisfactory results. Explains why I was taking adaptive down from the apparent Best Practice. Even though I selected display, the size was something totally beyond what you would expect on the web so it would almost always appear oversharpened.

I knew the resizing for printing but did not know this for display. Did you? and I wonder what the right sizing info would be for the web?

For BPN, I guess to have it sized properly, 72dpi @ 900 pixels?

Also the white thin line is in the original so not sure its a halo

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Steve, OK this is a quick brain dump as requested, please note the attached is done off-site so it may not be as accurate as perhaps it could be.


learned that if I sharpen for the web, I should resize for the web before running Pro Sharpener for display or I will not get satisfactory results. Totally correct irrespective of what process of sharpening you use.

Your main issue is the very low SS, ideally you should look at SS equivalent to the lens ie 400mm lens 1/400 SS, but that is in an ideal world, however. The image has a blue cast to it which doesn't help either. Without seeing the original I think you might be trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear, there is another.

The following is based on current exchanges rather than the above.
- Make sure your camera is set up correctly producing the correct format of images ie Adobe RGB, RAW...
- Use it as much as possible so things become instictive and with the 7D don't be afraid of high ISO - Contact Morkel re this
- Get your new monitor calibrated, keep it in the same position away from a window where light shines on the screen and where the light if possible, is constant. Calibration needs to be done once a month, more so when new.
- Make sure the RAW converter is set up correctly, especially for outputting, ie file format, IQ etc
- Work through your RAW converter in the logical manner as per the Module and get to know what each area does and how it effects the image
- When exporting your Tiff file from your RAW converter, duplicate it and switch the original off. That way if things go wrong or you are not happy you can go back to the file.
- In PS use Adjustment layers (they are your friends)
- When you have the final tiff file as you like it save it as a PSD file as you can always go back and tweak the file at a later stage. Flatten the image, crop to the final output size and the apply sharpening to the image, avoid sharpening everything, only the key subject/areas, not the BKG. Then remember to SAVE AS and rename it, DO NOT SAVE as you will over write everything an lose you original layered file.

Steve, my recent Snowy owl was 426MB as a layered PSD file. The file was resized with a DPI of 300 then following the steps in Wildlife sticky for SAVE for WEB. Ignore where it says Image quality 66%, if the file is correct first of all, the quality will shine through

I reduced the Blue, lightened overall, sharpened the Rhino.

Hope this helps.
Steve