The weather in the U.K. has been generally awful this spring and early summer.
I went on a visit to the Farne Islands (north of Newcastle on the North Sea) via a brief boat ride from Seahouses.
I am not 100% certain about what I should do in terms of post processing of these images of which I am posting just one.
I tried both manual and camera P settings on a d700 and 70-200 F/2.8 VRII
The light - due to the overxast/rainy weather - was too low to have any meaningful images with Manual settings of 1/1000th or more.
I decided against very high ISO to avoid grain.
As I am curious to see what other more expert post processing specialists might do I have not modified the pictures besides cropping them
Hi Claude- You bring up lots of important points and questions. First you have the makings of a good image here. Puffins are difficult to capture on the wing so you did well.
First, I'll say that I dream for overcast conditions when photographing black and white birds like puffins, so rather than lament, I would rejoice! In sunny conditions, the range of tones from shadow to highlight are broad and it is often difficult to render detail in both. In low light conditions I would not be at all afraid of upping the ISO settings on modern cameras to 800 or 1600, particularly on the D700, which produces clean images at relatively high ISOs. By the way could you provide the technical details of the image over and above the camera and lens- shutter speed, f-stop and ISO at least. Thanks.
There are a few issues with this image. First I can see jpeg artefacts around the edges of the bird and this is affecting overall image quality. I checked the size of the file to see what compression level was used. The file was 37kb in size which is tiny and would produce these artefacts. BPN allows files up to 250kb. Note that occasionally, if you attempt to upload an image to BPN that is larger than 250kb, the file will be resampled by the web software we use, and the result is not good because the resampling is far too aggressive. Make sure before you upload that the file size on your computer (not in Photoshop Save) is <250kb. Re the image, if you shot raw, you have a good chance of brightening up the dark areas and seeing some detail, although this will also bring out the noise that is there. I am not sure how much you cropped but the subject is a bit too tight in the frame and this could also be affecting IQ. The D700 is only 12mp full frame so you do not have high amounts of detail over the subject to begin with, compared to more modern cameras. Finally, there is a yellow cast over the image which I corrected in LAB colour.
It would be useful to see a repost of the image once you have reworked and it is sized appropriately to avoid artefacts.
This is an export done using LightRoom 3.6 of the original NEF.
No post processing except for cropping as before.
I indicated 300K as the upper limit and the image came out 190.
EXIF Info:
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Quality: NORMAL
Artist: Claude H. Ostfeld
Photographer Copyright: 2012
Date Time Original: 2012:07:11 15:16:39
Date Time Digitized: 2012:07:11 15:16:39
X Resolution: 300.00
Y Resolution: 300.00
Software: Ver.1.02
File Number: 64001
Model: NIKON D700
Lens: 70-200mm F2.8
Lens ID: Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II
Focal Length: 169.5 mm
Focus Mode: Continuous autofocus
Max Aperture: f/2.83
Aperture: 9.00
Exposure Time: 1/320.00
Exposure Mode: Auto
Exposure Program: Program Normal
Metering Mode: Pattern
Orientation: Upper Left (1)
Shooting Mode: Continuous, Unused LE-NR slowdown
Flash Fired: No
Flash Mode: Did not fire
Flash Return: No strobe return detection function
White Balance: Auto
Color Space: sRGB
ISO Setting: 200
ISO Speed: 200
X-Resolution: 300
Y-Resolution: 300
YCbCr Positioning: Co-sited
Compression: JPEG (old-style)
Hi Claude- Well this one looks better in that there are no jpeg artefacts but the subject is still dark and has a yellow cast. Regarding the crop, it's best to give a less room behind your subject and more room in front so that you give your subject some room into which to move. I also think the image needs to be sharpened some. Could you tell me why you are doing no post-processing. Are you happy with the image as-is?
Hi,
I'll prepare another cropped version later today according to your suggestion.
I obviously do Post Processing for my own use.
I figured, however, that there ws little point in sending an image that I had already "palyed with" when seeking guidance.
I know that I could increase the sharpness, eliminate some noise, play with the WB and so on and so forth.
I use LightRoom 3.6 which performs well. I bought an upgrade to version 4 but it slows down my system.
I thought it would be interesting to see what an expert would suggest doing with an unmodified raw image.
Claude
Hi Claude- The photographic process is generally considered a continuum from making the image through producing the final processed version so indeed there is good reason to post the fully processed version of an image to BPN. You will typically receive comments on the image itself and on the processing too. Other than some indication of the crop, we don't ask for every processing step you took, just the general direction such as "cropped to 50% of original size, lightened mid-tones, upped saturation a little, removed yellow cast, ran noise reduction and sharpened". If you did want to offer up the raw image to see what people would do with it, please provide a download link to the image and we will have a look.
Puffin in flight
