A flight of Mallards on final approach near the head end of New Market Lake in Piscataway NJ. I'm posting this here because it has been a difficult image for me to process. Using normal methods, I always end up with contrast lines surrounding each bird with an unacceptable level of softness to them. (I believe there are 3-5 birds in acceptable focus, though settings, distance and fringing due to the lens used affect clarity). This version was created by processing in a slightly backward workflow.
Canon 7D 400mm F5.6L HH ISO 500, SS 1/1000, F5.6 Manual zone/track focusing (I was working another subject when the flock appeared overhead). File is FF with crop on top and bottom only. (Needs canvas on right edge)
Processing: Canon DPP Raw conversion: Unsharp mask 3/1/1, everything else set to neutral (0), Noise reduction turned off. Tiff> PS CS6- here I created two layers. 1st for unsharp mask in soft light mode (this mode worked best on the birds but didn't noticeably affect the BG) Settings 85%, .3pix, 25 Threshold. 2nd mask for topaz clarity, 50% blend on normal. (used this to micro adjust contrast on the birds).
Then imported file into LR5 for slight adjustments, additional sharpening (20 @ .5, mask set to 50 detail at default)> applied light NR (10L 5C) and defringed a strong purple edging.
C&C welcome and appreciated, always open to an alternative processing approach.
Last edited by Randall Farhy; 03-03-2014 at 09:42 AM.
The back end of one of the ducks seems to be cloned out. Apart from that I like what you have tried to do. The saturation looks a little high looking at the legs and I think I would crop more from the bottom to make a more pano crop.
Thanks Iain- ok went more of a pano here (still needs canvas or cropping off the rear bird). Reduced vibrance from +14 (OP) to -5, also reduced luminance on the orange channel in lr5 by -9, pulled saturation on same by -5. Couldn't pull it back any further without graying out the body tones. Funny, I hadn't noticed the banking bird looks like it's rump was clone chopped until you mentioned it. Camera angle, likely had his feet down and forward similar to the others.
Diane-Is there a tutorial on canvas extension techniques? Extending it is easy enough, with a simple sky such as this it should be a no brainer-however I am having issues with the seam line-tried a few of the healing tools, the line disappears but it still looks blotchy. Stretching the edge using the marquee tool results in vertical striations, which is worse than the blotchy version.
Cool concept....Very Unique! Love the Title! (as Iain mentioned.... tail seems to missing from one of the ducks.... looks like it's the biggest duck in the image, but maybe it's just his angle? Rather odd tho... )
Randall, I should be able to put something up in a couple of days, maybe even sooner. I'm in the proverbial eye of the hurricane at the moment but that never lasts.
It may be a quick-and-dirty, to be roughed out later.
Colorforms
