Purple Finch Female

[Tim Harding]

D7100 300mm F4 AFS w/ 1.4xTC
1/1600 @f/6.3 ISO 1600 HH in natural light.

NR on BG, NIK detail extract on bird, selective colour adjustment on tail and primaries to bring out the yellow. Crop and sharpen.

I thought this came out well for a high ISO shot.

[John Robinson]

Hi Tim
Good to see another 7100man ! Good for 1600 on that gear I agree. It does seem a little bright but could be my monitor- I,ve been messing It certainly does look very sharp and I find I have to drop the sharp settings down one or two notches in mine. I would tone down the twig too . Cheers
John

[Arthur Morris]

Nice for any ISO. Obviously sharp. For me, it is the bird is either too contrasty or a bit over-sharpened. As for head angle either a full profile or a bit more head turn so that the bill was full set against the head, or better yet, we could see both eyes. None-the-less, and impressive image.

[Tim Harding]

There was some over-sharpening, Artie. I sharpened the bird using the settings from your Digital Basics (awesome!!), Then the PS action I have set up to size files for the web also has some sharpening in it.

Thanks for the tips!

[Daniel Cadieux]

This is the first time I see a Purple Finch with some yellow on it, how cool...almost a Pine Siskin hybrid! Definitely too much contrast and sharpening, but I like the image and its potential.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Nice sparrow and good job on getting this one on such hight ISO.
I also find the head a bit contrasty or over sharpened.

[Arthur Morris]

There was some over-sharpening, Artie. I sharpened the bird using the settings from your Digital Basics (awesome!!), Then the PS action I have set up to size files for the web also has some sharpening in it.

Thanks for the tips!

Thanks for the Digital Basics plug :). The double sharpening will get you every time.... In the next DB update I will include this:

For a while, I have been sharpening of my 1200 wide JPEGs with Unsharp Mask at 140/.3/0 and without ever having had a single sharpening halo comment. Recently, however, I have cut that back to 130/.3/0 for really sharp images.

Did you sharpen the bird only here?

[gail bisson]

I am late to the party and I agree with the above comments.
The image has a lot of potential. Just back off on the sharpening especially if you are using detail extractor.
Since I started using Detail Extractor ( never more than 4% for me) I find that the amount of USM needed has changed significantly. I use unsharp mask at 30/.3/0 to 50/.3/0 on the bird only
Gail

[Tim Harding]

Artie - The bird only was sharpened using your settings originally. Then the entire image is sharpened in my web sizing PS actions. I am going to remove the sharpening steps from my resizing actions and check the results.

Gail - I have a recipe that sets Detail Extractor to 10%, then I use layer opacity to back it off from there (usually 5-50% of that depending on the image). Maybe even that is even too much.

[Arthur Morris]

Artie - The bird only was sharpened using your settings originally. Then the entire image is sharpened in my web sizing PS actions. I am going to remove the sharpening steps from my resizing actions and check the results.

Gail - I have a recipe that sets Detail Extractor to 10%, then I use layer opacity to back it off from there (usually 5-50% of that depending on the image). Maybe even that is even too much.

Hi Tim,

I understood that. That's what I meant by "double-sharpening." I often use Detail Extractor at about 25% almost always on the bird only.