Hi All
This Sharp-shinned Hawk has been around for a couple of days, hoping to make a meal of the other birds visiting our various feeders. The hawk has just started a strafe by lifting off the fence rail seen at the bottom of the image. The image has been cropped by about 2/3. Other adjustments include leveling and sharpening.
If I'm am understanding some of the other recent posts at this forum, there are two reasons for the noise that is so dominant in the background: the amount of the crop and the amount of sharpening. Is that about right?
How else might this image be improved? For me, the fence rail is bothersome, but this is the only image I managed at the time.
Comments much appreciated. Thanks for looking.
Canon 40D, 100-400 mm at 400mm, f/5.6 at 1/2700 sec, ISO 640, eval. metering with 0 compensation.
Hi Gail I like the leaping pose Great anticipation Sure wish it had its wings spread !!!!
Photoshop wise would try reducing the bg noise The zero exp compensation seemed fine Not sure why all the noise?
Could also crop some from the top to enhance the forward motion
Hi Gail, nice timing on your capture, good sharpness on the hawk. The noise could be caused by the combination of the higher ISO, the amount of sharpening and the cropping. Others on this forum can give more input on that. I reduced the noise by running Noise Ninja, a PS plugin. I masked out the hawk and added extra noise reduction on the BG only. I also cloned out the orange spot under the hawk and removed the black dust-like spot to the left on the rail. The dark vertical lines in the BG are a big problem for me and look like a really big job to remove, so I didn't attempt it. I tried a crop, but that created more noise prominence.
Gentlemen
Thanks for the help. What a difference the Noise Ninja made. I really appreciate seeing the difference, thanks for the extra time.
Cheers
Gail
Very nice composition and capture Gail,
I like that leap and foward motion. The details and colors on your bird are dead on. Also like the repost without the noisy background...:cool:
I want to compliment you on obtaining such a sharp action image, just at the moment of take-off. Nice job! It would have been nice to see the wings ... but I also feel that you have enough good data ... very worthy of saving.
Noise can come from using too high a ISO. This is due to the signal being amplified. However I have found the 40D to easily handle the ISO 640 you were using.
Noise can also come from processing. I have found that if the exposure is "off", attempts to recover with aggressive curves or levels adjustment, or setting white/black points, or aggressive shadow/highlight, can emphasize the problem. Also, as you have noted, a poor starting image that has been heavily cropped will only exaggerate many flaws.
As in Dan's reposting, noise can sometimes be countered with selective and smart use of a noise reduction application.
I hope you do not mind:confused:, but I would like to repost your image with another possible alternative way to handle noise. I felt that this method might work well with an action image such as yours.
To emphasize the horizontal movement of the Hawk, I took your background on a layer, and applied a moderate horizontal motion blur (sorry I did not work out all the halos). The effect of this PS manipulation, is that it tends to simulate a slower shutter speed (looks like background movement blur, looks much slower than your 1/2700). A heavier application would also tend to fade out the two horizontal bars to taste, but it may not look real, as the Hawk is just starting out, plus it is much harder to prevent a processed "pasted-in" look. Some more QM, and cloning to taste could easily be used at this point.
The image has a cool, blueish color cast ... so I adjusted and warmed the color temperature of the Hawk, and the wooden rail.
I applied a S curve adjustment to the Hawk, and finally tried to tone down the background and the rail ... with the attempt to make the Hawk stand out. I did not apply any more sharpening to this 800 px JPEG, as that would also tend to add back more noise.
Finally, cropped the top and bottom as suggested by Alfred which tends to emphasize the horizontal "action" movement of your Hawk, plus it helps take away the distraction from the (bright) rail.
I hope you like the effect. I think that in your original file, you should have plenty of really nice data to give it a try!:)
Last edited by Brian Wong; 05-01-2008 at 01:32 AM.
From one BC'r to another. I sure like your Hawk photo, and collective suggestions with samples are sure educating . . . The subtle changes like the crop suggestion by Al added a bit more action, and I like both edits.
Welcome Gail. Hope you keep them coming. It is an excellent capture, just at the right moment. Agree with Alfred about the wing position, but none the less it is good. Great job on the re-postings.
Congrats
Sharp-shinned Hawk
