Guys I have little time, so am slowly working up and pondering our wild bird feeder mainly for practice. Look we are blessed to live in a simple house out a bit,so we see some stunning chaps visiting and try to give them a hand along with some grub. So this is one of those shots,I prefer being out,but as already said this is one of blighty's stunners,in flight the yellow wing bars spell binding . I feel it would be fun to not only use the chance for practice,but also catch some of their antics properly,it's fantastic seeing them chasing each other around the feeders ,it's a cool little phot op to explore.
Shot in the pouring rain,just started,the white circles!! Through glass,as I say i'm musing this chance to squeeze in camera familarity,deep shade to bright light,so not really digging for keepers yet. But this crop I do quite like,ahh guys their song !!!!!!
So shot through glass baited, Canon 2.8 1.4 ext f/4 iso 2000 TV 4000 English April showers so the sun could have been shining with rain. Processed in DPP . I'm deeply interested in very basic thoughts on processing in PS.
I have not had any experience shooting in rain, so I don't know if it can be done with "perfect technical results". Asking Dianne and others with experience -- do you just give up at this point (when drops are falling) and hope it's a passing shower, and resume when there is no more rain?
But this is a great candidate to take into Photoshop and see what can be done with the raindrops, if only to learn more about PS tools!
I'd start by using a tool to spot-remove the brighter (white) drops - I counted 7-8 of those. I'm also new to PS; I know you can use the Lasso Tool to fix, but I'm guessing there may be a better way (Help other folks!!!).
I also see what may be larger drops that were closer to the lens -- they are not bright-white, but you can see the ghostly-white large round images both above-right of the bird (big circle), and directly below the bird (small circle). There should be a way to either clone those out (and use Content Aware to fill in) or Heal them so they don't show up as forcefully.
Finally on the far-right, the background there is a little too light; there should be a way to darken that up. But IDK, others may think that's fine. Let's see what they say.
I sure someone else will give you the specifics; I'm anxious to see how your edits go and what the re-post will look like!!
Stu, You are lucky to have these beautiful little birds coming to you. I have made a set up at my home to on days when I just cant get out. I just have to remember to change the perch occasionally!
I can see you really had to push those techs. Lighting would have been difficult, but it's great practice.
Diane will be your best friend with the PS edits, but here are my BASIC thoughts. Is this a crop Stu? I would crop the RHS to just on the outside of that bigger OOF spot where the perch starts to rise and I would consider a slice off the bottom. The smaller spots could be easily removed by cloning or the healing brush tool. As Andrew has mentioned, the image, even after cropping the RHS, still would be a bit bright, so toning down would be the biggest problem for me in this frame. The image seems a bit noisy, so I would do a Noise Reduction over the BG only. I have been using Topaz Denosie, but Nik have made their products free. I would consider a curves adjustment to take the brightness off his perch a little.
Without going back to find your previous posts, I don't have any idea what the camera body and lens were.
You have AdobeRGB embedded. When exporting for the web you need to convert to sRGB and tag it.
The OOF vegetation on the right is a flaw that will be very difficult to deal with. Composition needs to be dealt with when shooting.
It doesn't look very sharp -- tripod or handheld? Shooting thru glass is not good, but you undoubtedly know that and your point in posting was about processing. So in that regard: Exposure looks good but there is huge noise in the BG, especially below the branch. Did you underexpose and bring it up in post? Even so, you should be able to minimize noise with the raw converter, especially the chroma noise that is prominent here.
In PS, the Spot Healing Brush is perfect for the raindrops. The two larger polygons are probably very OOF rain drops -- possibly even on the front of the lens. They can be Spot Healed of Cloned out.
Hi guys,just a very brief post mainly of apology for not getting the colour space right that was a simple over sight as with the camera specs,it's exhaustion at play I won't labour it. I do want to say HUGE thanks for the informative and cool replies.
I don't yet have ps ,but hope for it real soon,so yes this image was really about digging for some base steps that I can start to research .
Diane, sorry about the gaff,there is no excuse and it bugs me that you have had to tell me about colour space when I have had help and know this. I am confused though on noise reduction. When I have PS should I be doing some NR before PS?
Glennie Andrew,bless you both for the kind responses sorry I can't reply properly,at this time,but I will absorb your posts properly soon,time is not on my side ,but I do appreciate your thoughts on a huge level !!
All your camera data is within your Exif data accessed when you view the image. Canon MKIV, 300f/2.8 with 1.4x, f/4 SS1/4000 (excessive) ISO2000. You could have had more DoF, SS would have dropped and retained ISO. If you want rain streaks then you need a SS around 1/160, the higher the SS the less you will retain.
When I have PS should I be doing some NR before PS?
You can do this in DPP and do it in the RAW stage, has Andreas run through this with you, if not buy Arash's DPP guide, but can you open PDF's?
Not a great shot and personally based on the OP I might say binned and move on. Don't have much time, but you could 'doctor' the BKG adding noise (grain), then use some NR and sharpen the subject. As I said not great but it may help????
Stu, save you time and wait for better weather and ensure your windows are squeaky clean and get the lens almost touching the glass.
All your camera data is within your Exif data accessed when you view the image. Canon MKIV, 300f/2.8 with 1.4x, f/4 SS1/4000 (excessive) ISO2000. You could have had more DoF, SS would have dropped and retained ISO. If you want rain streaks then you need a SS around 1/160, the higher the SS the less you will retain.
You can do this in DPP and do it in the RAW stage, has Andreas run through this with you, if not buy Arash's DPP guide, but can you open PDF's?
Not a great shot and personally based on the OP I might say binned and move on. Don't have much time, but you could 'doctor' the BKG adding noise (grain), then use some NR and sharpen the subject. As I said not great but it may help????
Stu, save you time and wait for better weather and ensure your windows are squeaky clean and get the lens almost touching the glass.
Cheers
Steve
Steve,thanks for the repost and thoughts,even in brevity mate ,you are hugely informative,pic also painting the proverbial. Binned and move on i'm fine with Steve,it's not my end game shot,it was a chance to learn and I really have from this post. Plus a few hours just having the camera in my hand even though it was rain then sun then rain say every 1/4 hour is cool.Slowly i'm assimilating and grabbing muscle memory,on my camera controls,it was me making a chance to practice. Steve that's it isn't it I don't have any other time,just trying to make it happen
Steve, in NO way would I say I am master of my techs(super bit for me about the Ss for rainstreaks), there is a reason for the high iso and ss,to my shame I wasn't much thinking about dof here. Ive been pondering catching the inflight antics,trying to see if what shutter would freeze wings,maybe not tips but without using flash. This pic was taken during this process,I'm in no way there with my camera specs though Steve,not in any way confident in my ability at all ! I must stress awareness to not ideal conditions,but **** haven't I learnt alot and thought on alot from posting this.
Diane,shot is hand held, no I haven't raised exposure,in part this is why my reply has been slow in coming,I think i am introducing noise somewhere,I think it's in the gamma control in DPP,I'm unsure Diane,but I want to work through it and then probably bother Andreas for confirmation of my thoughts, or you mate, it's not selective advice, just andreas does DPP you LR as RAW converter .
Steve I think I can open a pdf,but you guys give me so much help,(i'm sure our friend has skooled me on NR),I have to try and rough it,sometimes. I need to learn the hard way mate,once given the right pointers.I need to earn it, it sticks in my head that way. Buying artie and Arash's guide I know would be a joy for me, probably jump me forwards by months/years.....they are both huge inspirations to me. Those guys pics have made me want to keep DPP as my RAW converter, but as slow as I am I sometimes have to fight with something to really learn it.
Glennie Andrew cheers both Glennie around 50% crop Not so much worried on the smaller spots, larger look weird ,remind me of old mirror lenses. Andrew cheers for all the thought put into the post,I guess there will be little in edits to follow this one,there will be in time on others. But mate so much learnt by posting an image ,it's can be incredible how this made me think
Goldfinch UK. Baited
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Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski
Glennie around 50% crop Not so much worried on the smaller spots, larger look weird ,remind me of old mirror lenses. Andrew cheers for all the thought put into the post,I guess there will be little in edits to follow this one,there will be in time on others. But mate so much learnt by posting an image ,it's can be incredible how this made me think 
