European Robin

[Bill Nuttall]

another largish crop …… original image shown, below the crop

if I try to use the magnetic Lasso tool to select the bird and branch and then inverse it to select the background so that I can smooth out any noise ……. I always seem to get a noticeable halo around the bird ……… is there someway to avoid this? …….. this is the image BEFORE I tried to reduce the noise in the bg

I am also trying to make the background less patchy …… any hits …… I normally use content aware, the patch and stamp tools …… the above is the best that I can do
I have cloned a branch out from left to right horizontally just up from the middle of the image

seen last week …….. woodland ……SW France

D750
Nikon 600mm f4
ISO 320
f8
large crop
not too much processing after advice given to me on my other images

Is it another "crop too far"

Thanks

[Grace Scalzo]

I stand humbled by your photoshop work. There are a few tell tale signs, but easily fixed. That being said, I would personally work a bit harder to get closer to your subject if possible. The crop held up quite well. Do you have the option of adding an extender to your 600?

[Bill Nuttall]

I stand humbled by your photoshop work. There are a few tell tale signs, but easily fixed. That being said, I would personally work a bit harder to get closer to your subject if possible. The crop held up quite well. Do you have the option of adding an extender to your 600?

Thanks Grace ……. that's the nearest I could ever get, I would think ……...

I have a x 1.4 and x 2 Nikon TC's which I use with my 300mm f2.8 that I will try with the 600mm …… thanks again for your comments

[Diane Miller]

Your image quality held up amazingly well at such a big crop. But you're on thin ice if you rely on cropping that much all the time.

Forget the magnetic lasso -- it would drive a saint crazy. You can usually get a very nice selection with the Quick Selection tool, feather it slightly, then touch it up by hitting the Q key to go into quick mask mode and touch it up with black and white brushes, to add or erase. (Zoom in to 100% or more.) Then Q to go back to the selection and use Lens Blur to work on the BG, or clone with partial opacity. For difficult cases, Topaz ReMask is excellent but takes some work.

Do the selection on a copy layer and hit the mask icon (bottom of Layers panel) to put the bird on a masked layer so you can easily touch up edges (halos or cloning artifacts against the bird, etc).

[Bill Nuttall]

Your image quality held up amazingly well at such a big crop. But you're on thin ice if you rely on cropping that much all the time.

Forget the magnetic lasso -- it would drive a saint crazy. You can usually get a very nice selection with the Quick Selection tool, feather it slightly, then touch it up by hitting the Q key to go into quick mask mode and touch it up with black and white brushes, to add or erase. (Zoom in to 100% or more.) Then Q to go back to the selection and use Lens Blur to work on the BG, or clone with partial opacity. For difficult cases, Topaz ReMask is excellent but takes some work.

Do the selection on a copy layer and hit the mask icon (bottom of Layers panel) to put the bird on a masked layer so you can easily touch up edges (halos or cloning artifacts against the bird, etc).

Thanks Diane for these and your other comments on my Greenfinch posting

really appreciated

Merci

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

You are doing some really good post processing IMO.
The quick selection tool can be selected by pressing the W key. There are two tools available, the quick selection and the magic wand tool. The magic wand tool looks kind of like a serrated edged pizza cutter and the other tool will be the quick selection tool. I hold down the SHIFT key and then press W to select either tool. If say the magic wand appears to be used, I keep holding shift and press W again. So basically holding SHIFT lets you scroll through the available tools (on a Mac at least, should be the same on Windows). It is easy to learn to use, maybe go to YouTube to find a brief tutorial.

IMHO though, it's always best to be able to try and take an image in the camera requiring minimal of this sort of post processing. But it is a good technique to know.

With birds, sometimes if you sit quietly and observe them, you may find that they have a certain pattern in their behavior and may land on the same perches time and time again. That way you could carefully get closer, use the converter (either 1.4x or 2x) and as long as you practice your long lens technique, you will start getting shots you will love even more. It takes time and effort. But you're certainly making a lot of good ground here mate.

Keep it up!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good advice you got. Excellent processing to keep the IQ looking good for such a huge crop. I too would work on field craft to get closer - or perhaps entice them closer (e.g. audio or mealworms if within your personal bird photography ethics). One thing I would not have done for your finished version is rotate the canvas it it looks like the robin will tip over to our right.

[Diane Miller]

Good catch on the rotation -- I hadn't noticed. In addition to the angle of the bird, having the large tree limb horizontal gives the image a static look. Here's a crop in the original orientation -- what do you think? I also darkened the limb to keep it secondary to the bird. Bright objects grab attention.

I wouldn't have any objection to including the BG elements, to give a more natural look.

[Bill Nuttall]

Thanks for your comments, but

I suppose I don't see it "falling over" at all (in fact the reverse), and too much branch is a really ugly feature, IMHO

[keith mitchell]

Bill it's really impressive that you get such good IQ with a crop this size, very well done.

Keith.