Wattled Crane

Attachment 144767

Taken at Savuti Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana
Canon 6d
Zeiss 80-200/4 @200mm
f/5.6 IS0 400 1/1250
HH and MF as usual these days

LR to flatten highlights/shadows/whites/blacks, exposure reduced 1/4 stop
PS CC for lights/darks luminosity masks, resize, smart sharpening and save-for-web

This was a substantial crop because its mate was lower right and mostly out of frame.

I know I need to re-visit the ultra-blacks of the tail wings. Halos along neck and top of wings showed up after sizing and save-for-web. Not sure why that happened! :(

Excellent! I think anyone who can use MF on a moving subject is a genius! Wonderful sharpness and detail on a great subject and very nice tonalities for what looks like harsh sun. I love the OOF vegetation acting as a base for the image.

I don't lnow the bird but it looks like there is a bit of blue cast -- you might try some WB tweaking on the raw file. Or maybe it's a small enough correction that Color Balance in PS would be fine.

Those halos come from sharpening of the JPEG -- either after the fact or while it's being created. Resampling to downsize will soften an image so the software tries to sharpen to compensate. Save for Web gives you a choice of sharpening methods and different images might need different ones.

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Originally Posted by Diane Miller

Excellent! I think anyone who can use MF on a moving subject is a genius!

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Thank you, ma'am. <bows>[bows]

I don't know the bird either but I do know Zeiss glass pumps up the blues. I like that but sometimes it's too much for others.

Yes, this was taken around 1pm and light was harsh. But I like the shot and will try your suggestions. Many thanks!</bows>

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Originally Posted by Edward Arthur

Halos along neck and top of wings showed up after sizing and save-for-web. Not sure why that happened! :(

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I think it's about selective sharpening gone wrong - I can actually see a halo around most of the bird. Looking on the noise on the bird's head & face the high amount of crop combined with quite a bit of sharpening might be your biggest enemy here. Sometimes a bird is simply too far to render high IQ and at 200mm this might be the case. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... :e3

Excellent shot - sharp and not to much sharp shadows. I personally prefer more lose crops, i.e. I would like some more space around the bird.

With respect to the halos I don't know if you have exported from LR but if not try that out because I think the results are usually excellent.

Thanks, everyone. :)

Tobie, no worries. I appreciate your honest opinion. I knew the halos became quite pronounced after re-size and sharpening. I'm assuming an artifact of pp because the raw file is pretty clean. Exporting through LR may help and I have a couple other ideas as well. I'll RP when I work it out.

Are you using Save for Web directly on your PS master file? You shouldn't be doing other intervening steps like resizing or sharpening before that. You can choose several sharpening algorithms in the Save for web dialog -- trial and error on which is the best, as it will vary from image to image. But after some degree of cropping and attempting to salvage the quality, you will get artifacts. There is no substitute for pixels on the subject.

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Originally Posted by Edward Arthur

<snip>Exporting through LR may help and I have a couple other ideas as well. <snip>

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FWIW: I've never considered another export channel other than LR - I just like the options provided in the export pop-up (such as resizing for BPN) and it's straightforward.

Attachment 144839

Well, it is what it is. I like the shot but the fact that I spent a lot of time on this image should be a sign. . .

Here, LR export and other shorthand attempts didn't help. So I just painted over the edges in PS CC (well beyond my capabilities), a little more smart sharpening and save-for-web.

If different export options didn't change anything, it just means look farther back in the workflow for the best optimization. Some images are just learning opportunities. But cloning out artifacts can be OK.

I now see more feathered highlights around the tail, but they were there before -- I just didn't see them. Here's how: make a Curves adjustment layer (or Levels) and pull the ends in to enhance contrast in the range desired -- here, the sky. Then you can see the issues to deal with.