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A beauty, Isaac. Nice you were able to get close, and good POV. Like the water droplets and bow wake.
Geoffrey
http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu
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Macro and Flora Moderator
Nice shot Isaac, looks good I am surprised you needed NR.
I am wondering if it would be worthwhile lowering the contrast slightly at the raw stage, the image looks quite heavy to me.
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Thanks Geoffrey and Jonathan.
Jonathan I apply noise reduction to every image. Both to the bird and the background. It is always there. Could you please tell me what you mean by heavy. I know that this shot is very saturated and one of those jump out at you shots, but that is what it was like. This was photographed in early morning light in full sun, with bright blue skies and a super colorful bird. I did not add any contrast to the raw at all but I guess you are suggesting that I could have lowered the contrast. Once converted to Tiff I did not add any contrast either except I ran a NIK layer using 25% detail extractor and 25% tonal contrast. Have to be very careful with these birds when adding contrast as it will quickly blow out the whites which I was careful in the field and while processing not to do. Thanks and am looking forward to your response. I always appreciate learning about a different method that I could make part of my work flow.
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Macro and Flora Moderator
Isaac, the noise is largely a matter of choice, of course there will be some noise in an image, it is a matter of deciding if it is perceptible or if it is affecting the image in a negative way. I generally find that noise on the 1DX is not worth bothering about until you hit 3-4000 ISO even then I generally find little is needed. If the image is cropped the noise is always more apparent. I wonder did you see much difference in when the NR was applied as opposed to when it wasn't?
Regarding contrast, I have found that as a matter or routine it isn't a bad idea to set contrast -1 in DPP because in general the Standard mode produces heavy contrast. I do now in fact set the camera setting to -1 contrast and I ave found in geneal it was a good idea. I have just recalibrated my screen and had another look at your image, it is a fine one indeed but there is just the tiniest amount of clipping in the jpeg, I suspect your TIFF didn't show any. I appreciate the duck is intensely coloured, we do have some feral ones here in UK, I am not saying it definitely needs less contrast all I am suggesting is try a little less contrast just to see what the result is and if you don't like it that's fine.
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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At such low ISO I see very little difference in the bird, but even a very slight difference is worth it to me. It certainly does not have an impact on the sharpness of the image at all so I would prefer to get rid of any noise and be left with a sharp photo. I think I struggled for a long time with thinking somehow that noise is details which it most certainly is not. Once I accepted that then I think my output has improved. Even at such low ISOs there is a much greater difference in the water as I apply a more aggressive NR and I think it adds to the glassy and very clean look of the water. Appreciate the time spent to explain. Trust me I always welcome constructive criticism. It is what I use to learn and is one of the things that I really like about this site as opposed to others. I want to hear what I can do better so I can get better. Also want to hear other perspectives and workflows. While hearing great shot is nice, it does nothing to make me a better photographer. Thanks again.
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