Turkey Vulture - comment on processing

[Barry Ekstrand]

I took this photo of a Turkey Vulture while on a walk around a neighborhood lake. This was just after noon on a cloudless and bright sunny day. Conditions were not optimal for a great photo, this was my first use of my new 5D Mark III and I was shooting anything flying by while out for a stroll. Because of the bright background (sun behind the bird), the dark areas of the bird looking completely black, and the bird's side facing me was nearly all in a shadow, I thought this would be a good exercise to see if I could manage to recover anything worthwhile. I would welcome comments on my effort to salvage the image (there was no intent to make a nice artistic picture here).

Photo info: Canon 5D Mark III with Canon 400 mm f5.6L lens; ISO 800; Aperture priority; f10; 1/2000 sec. I have cropped it to 75% of original.

I processed the RAW image in DPP following Arthur Morris and Arash Hazeghi's common recommendations in the Digital Basics and Professional Photographers Guide To Noise Reduction e-books. After passing the image from DPP to Photoshop I used Nik Color Efex and Neat Image filters for the first time. I made a layer for the bird alone and then ran Neat Image noise reduction on the background sky. Next I ran Color Efex Detail Extractor to pull out some detail in the black of the bird. Following that I ran Neat Image noise reduction on the bird. Finally, I used Smart Sharpen in PS.

I had also tried to use Color Efex Tonal Contrast but I couldn't find a sweet spot with it on this image, I managed to get a lot of induced noise with just a little bit of that filter. I'm sure I have much to learn on careful use of the filter and will get better results with it as I learn..

Again, any comments on the approach and result will be appreciated.

Barry

[dankearl]

My suggestion would be to not take photos at noon on a sunny day.
You did the best you could with processing, just not a good time to take photos looking
up at a bright sky.
No amount of PP can fix that.
Look forward to more photos!

[Randy Stout]

Barry:

Thanks for the detailed description of what you did, that helps make the critique more specific.

Normally I wouldn't expect to need any noise reduction with this camera at ISO 800. This makes me think that the original was significantly underexposed, which is what you would expect with a dark bird, fairly small in the frame, against a dark background, unless a lot of + EC was dialed in at the time of the shot. I am an Nikon shooter, but would have put in at least +1, probably more in this situation, if shooting in AE.

The bird is still somewhat underexposed, making it hard to pull a lot of detail out of the darker areas, even with Color Efex Pro. Tonal contrast works quite well in some situations, but I don't find it effective if the image is underexposed.

From a comp. standpoint, the bird is too centered for my taste, and I would crop significantly from the left, or even consider making it a vertical comp.

Look forward to more of your images!

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Barry, Randy hit the high points, and I would agree to definately dial in a + EC especially shooting up to the sky, and on a subject with dark plumage. If you have the opportunity to practise on various subjects, you will soon get to know your settings for the various subjects. I also wouldnt run any NR on the subject, as you will lose the finer detail. Cheers.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Randy has offered you some good advice and you could try them out next time but in reality, in this type of lighting condition, the camera stays packed in my backpack unless I encounter an Ivory-billed Woodpecker Tough to get anything redeeming, but I realize you were just testing out your new gear. You'll be much happier with nice light...

[Tony Whitehead]

I think you've done well to extract what you have in this, Barry. Randy has covered the points well. +EC at capture is crucial to make the best of it - I would have dialed in +1.3-1,7 - with a little practice you can do this as you raise the camera to your eye for a shot against the sky.

[Barry Ekstrand]

All,

Many thanks for the comments. This was truly a learning exercise for me, and your insight makes it worthwhile - all very much appreciated.

Barry