Great Kiskadee taken today in Mission, TX
Nikon D 90,
1/800 sec, at f / 8.0, ISO 800, 290 mm, tripod
There was no crop on this photo
All C & C greatly appreciated.
Just trying to improve.
Thanks for looking
C M
Great Kiskadee taken today in Mission, TX
Nikon D 90,
1/800 sec, at f / 8.0, ISO 800, 290 mm, tripod
There was no crop on this photo
All C & C greatly appreciated.
Just trying to improve.
Thanks for looking
C M
Hey C M,
I like the colours, composition, and the shot seems to be in focus but it looks really soft to me. Did you use a lot of noise reduction? Maybe use noise reduction only on the background, if that's what you did :)
A nice image but it's very soft. What was you processing? These days, that's as important as the camera settings, or more so.
I'd go back to the raw file and try to keep whatever sharpness you were able to capture. Noise reduction can be done later in PS.
This is raw picture, saved as "Alt+Shift+Ctrl+S".
Nothing done to photo.
I'm not familiar with that keyboard shortcut. What is your raw processor?
Also, you don't have a profile tagged for either image.
Here it is with a simple run through Nik's Detail Extractor at a low value, and then Nik's Sharpener. This isn't the way to do it, with detaillost in processing first, but I'm wondering if different processing could have revealed this detail. There is noise brought out, which shouldn't be removed early if it causes loss of detail. Was the original underexposed? It's always best to overexpose as much as possible without blowing out whites, and bring exposure down in processing. That will reduce noise dramatically compared to bringing up an underexposed image.
In a case like this, the noise doesn't really show on the bird and it can be reduced separately in the BG in PS.
PS isn't a raw processor. You would mean Adobe Camera Raw, which comes with it but is a separate program. I'm wondering if the second JPEG you posted really reflects the original raw file with no parameters adjusted? It has the look of too much noise reduction, especially for a non-cropped image. But I'm not familiar with the characteristics of that camera -- they are all different. I'd be as careful as possible to get a single focus sensor right on the eye -- the best focus will help with detail, and gentle overexposure, without blowing out whites, will help reduce noise.
OK on the shortcut. That's where you didn't get the profile tagged. In Save for Web make sure both Convert to sRGB and Embed Profile are checked. They should be sticky.
The in-camera JPEG has been processed by the camera according to whatever settings are in the menu. It doesn't accurately represent the raw file. Maybe you have too much NR set in the camera menu?
I hope you are using the actual raw file for your work. The JPEG may be useful for comparison -- or not -- depending on the settings. But -- honestly -- something just doesn't look right with this image. You may have hidden detail in the raw file that doesn't show here.