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Thread: Great Crested Grebe

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    Default Great Crested Grebe

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    Got the exposure dead-on for a change! I often struggle with wet white things in the sun, especially when they have dark plumage too.

    I've done my best with it but is there any more to be had from this one?

    7D & EF400 5.6
    Taken hand held in Av -1EC
    1/1000, f8, ISO 400



    PP...


    Converted to 16 bit TIFF in DPP
    Opened in CS6
    Levels adjustment
    Curves adjustment
    Topax Denoise 5
    Removed 2nd catchlight in eye
    Hint more colour Saturation generally (also negative yellow saturation on BG)
    Crop/Resize/USM


    All comments very gratefully received

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    Awesome bird. I love the detail in this one, especially the eye. Exposure seems dead-on indeed. I might have tried to pull on the Recover (Camera Raw) or Whites (LR) slider just a little bit to tone down a few white pixels. But I'm being very very very picky here.

    I guess you wanted to include the reflection of the bird, but since it is not clear, I may have tried to put the bird a bit lower in the frame. Especially with the lighter area on the lower right corner that grabs the attention a bit.

    But as I said, I'm picky here. This is a great image.

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    I think you're spot on, on both counts - this looks even better to me now

    Re-converted with the whites down a bit more (I use DPP so combination of brightness & contrast)
    I had to patch in a little water over the grey bit in order to keep the frame, cropping it out lost too much.
    I've also cleaned up some of the uglier looking ripples with the clone stamp.

    Thanks for the pointers.

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    Lovely image Paul. Repost looks very nice. I see a hint of gold in the water, so thought I would see what it looks like to add a little warmth to it in Nik Viveza 2. The neck seems a bit bright on my monitor, so did a burn on the mid-tones. PP isn't a strong suit of mine, so take it with a grain of salt.

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    I like it - The original RAW is little too yellow/gold so maybe I took a bit too much out.

    Thanks for the repost

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    BPN Viewer Jeff Cashdollar's Avatar
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    Paul,

    Nice Grebe,..just beautiful and the reworked images regarding cropping and subject placement are improvements. The initial post had too much foreground which pulls on the eye and of course take the eye off the subject. If the natural habitat compliments the subject we include if not we eliminate.

    I like the exposure techs, might be a few hot pixels but overall well done (maybe 1/3 more shutter). The whites in the eye area and neck make the shot special,.. this is natures accent and must be preserved. I like the workflow, do you use layers when applying the NR. I like the original colors too no more saturation needed IMO. Thanks for sharing and keep em coming!

    On more thing: the colors on bill are amazing!
    Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 04-04-2013 at 03:25 PM.

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    Thanks for the comments Jeff.

    The sun was in and out of the clouds a bit on a quite windy day so exposure was a bit hit and miss as I leapfrogged him along the narrow river to stay sun-side of him each time he dived.
    This shot had the best pose at the expense of a few blown highlights unfortunately, albeit only in the wet bits.

    As regards NR/layers I usually run a very gentle pass on the whole image early on, after levels adjustment paying attention only to the bird although I use BG as a handy reference at this point to see that I'm not overdoing it.

    I will run another pass on the BG only last thing before flattening, often a more "aggressive" pass depending on ISO.
    I prefer NR to blur on BG's as I think it leaves a less processed looking result, it seems to "polish" water nicely too to my untrained eyes.

    Not often I get to shoot as low as ISO 400 to be honest, Crop sensor body, "only" a 400mm lens with no IS, hand holding and still learning my technique so 800 and 1600 are the norm for me. NR is a must.

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    BPN Viewer Jeff Cashdollar's Avatar
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    Ok,..

    Good input, I always use a layer mask when applying NR, but thats me as I tend to be obsessed with detail. I use a method from APTATS detailing an easy workflow to apply NR and sharpen. Actually APTATS II, have you heard of it?

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    Heard of it yes but not read it.
    As a newcomer I have found there are so many conflicting methods for NR published online that it's difficult to know what's "right" other than being happy with the results.
    Same with sharpening (The other side of the same coin?)

    I do 99% of the time use a layer mask on my shots as I think subject and BG usually need different treatments to some degree, even if it is just NR.

    I think I might be guilty of "autopilot" sometimes, going with my generic workflow for all shots without the experience to know if each step is really needed, perhaps this Grebe didn't really need any NR at all?
    Like I said I'm so used to noise being a factor due to the high ISO's our English weather (and my shaky hand!) often dictates.
    I'm getting better all the time so hopefully I can get that shutter speed down more consistently as time goes on.

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    Lifetime Member Marina Scarr's Avatar
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    Lovely image to start off with but RP are even better. Very nice details and new crop works better.
    Marina Scarr
    Florida Master Naturalist
    Website, Facebook

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    BPN Viewer Jeff Cashdollar's Avatar
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    Paul,..just keep posting and commenting and all aspects will improve!

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