Barred Owl

[Anthony Barsotti]

Picked up a 600mm f/4 last week and took it out this weekend, found a subject I've been looking for for quite some time (a lifer for me). Shot with a Canon 1DX, 1/1600sec 600mm at f/4 and ISO 3200. Minimal processing done in Lightroom, slight cropping to reduce headroom, noise reduction, tweaking white balance and tone curve. Thanks in advance for any comments/suggestions!

[Isaac Grant]

Great subject and a great perch. I think there is something off with your processing as it looks like too much noise reduction was applied to the bird. Could you detail what you did so I can make a suggestion as to how to improve it. It also looks like more NR could be applied to the background. Congrats on the find and the new lens!

[Anthony Barsotti]

Thanks Isaac! Yeah NR is something I've been working on, still not quite where I'd like to be yet. I applied some luminance NR and have the slider at 33, detail is at 50 and contrast is at 0. Then I applied sharpening, I have masking at 43, amount at 41, radius at the default of 1 (I feel like that starts to over-sharpen pretty quickly), and detail at 33. With my mask at that setting the background is basically completely black and the bird is stark white, should I reduce that a bit?

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Tony, nice capture, I agree the NR has smoothened the feather details too much while the BG is still grainy, for many years when I used Canon my (and later Artie's) workflow was based on DPP and NI, we both got incredible high ISO results. I also wish the bright spots in the BG weren't there, nice perch and good eye contact

TFS

[Anthony Barsotti]

Thanks for the feedback Ari! I've been meaning to try DPP, I know I've seen articles on BAA about using it for NR. I'll have to give it a try, what's NI though?

[Paul Burdett]

Hi Anthony. Congrats on the new 600mm lens...may take a while to get used to it maybe, but I'm sure you'll get killer shots with it. I really like the image, but agree with the suggestions posted. Great eye contact and I like the perch. NI is Neat Image..a noise reduction software program. Cheers.

[Isaac Grant]

Like Arash I also always used DPP for raw processing when I shot Canon. Not trying to spend your money but I would highly recommend you pick up a copy of Arash's and Arties guide for DPP and also their guide for Neat Image. They cover the programs in great detail and gives you settings for each camera and ISO. And they walk you through the process of careful noise reduction done to preserve fine feather detail and reduce noise. Probably the best $100 you can spend. In addition you would need to purchase Neat Image. I have both of the guides and consider them a valuable resource. We spend so much on gear and so much time in the field that to me the extra money for the guides and the programs are a no brainer. Surely you can achieve excellent results in Lightroom as well. In Lightroom a setting of 33 on the Luminance slider is way too much and is the cause of the smoothened feather details. I would go back to the raw and redo this with a much lower luminance setting of maybe 5-9 and lower your detail to somewhere around $15. Just a guide of course but trying to guess the noise based on the camera and ISO. Hope that helps.

[Anthony Barsotti]

I think I will pick up a copy of those guides, I completely agree that it’s a great investment and that little bit of money goes a long way. I picked up Ari’s AF guide recently, still making my way through it but once I get through that I’ll probably dive into those. I’ll definitely give that a try in LR though, thanks a lot for your help!

[David Salem]

Cool capture but i agree 100% with the others. The guides will be invaluable at this stage of your photography. Keep em coming

[John Mack]

Nice bird on a nice perch. This would have made a nice vertical.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice but the bird is too centered ...

NI is neat image. Learn about it in the Professional Guide to Post Processing here.

But first get the DPP 4 RAW conversion guide here.

with love, and thanks for your membership support.

artie

[Anthony Barsotti]

Nice but the bird is too centered ...

NI is neat image. Learn about it in the Professional Guide to Post Processing here.

But first get the DPP 4 RAW conversion guide here.

with love, and thanks for your membership support.

artie

Thanks Artie! I’ll be sure to pick those guides up and I’ll play around with some different crops that aren’t so center-weighted, might try moving the owl near the left third. Appreciate your feedback!

[Arthur Morris]

You are welcome Anthony. And thanks a stack for your membership support.

with love, artie