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Thread: Grey Ghost

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    Default Grey Ghost

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    Found a spot (that I'm sure is well known around PA/NJ) for photographing Northern Harriers and, in particular, a few Grey Ghosts that fly very close. This one I managed to photograph while he was hunting in the late afternoon. Shot with a Canon 1DX and 600mm f/4 IS II at ISO 400 f/4 1/6400. Slight cropping done in Lightroom and some minor contrast/exposure tweaks as well as some cloning on the background in Photoshop to remove some unsightly power lines. Thanks for looking!

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    I like the pose and the background very much. But to me the whole image is way too dark. I would lift the exposure about 3/4 of a stop. I would also lift the shadows as well. I would apply some noise reduction to the background as it is much grainier than I would expect for ISO 400 on a 1dx. Also the bird could use some extra sharpening.

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    BPN Member Dorian Anderson's Avatar
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    Beautiful spread wing pose and eye contact. I also like the blurred reeds at the bottom. Agree with Isaac that it looks grainy/noisy given ISO 400 on DX and that it needs to e brightened a bit.

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    Love the eye contact and wing position. some points already covered above re noise and brightness. I would sharpen the head more. I think re processing can significantly improve this file

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    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    This is very nice - I LOVE LOVE the blurry gold reeds at the bottom of the frame.
    When I first looked at it, I did not think the image was dark but once pointed out I think a very slight increase in brightness or exposure would help.
    Very nice incoming wing position.
    If I had one wish it would be that the wings did not intersect with the horizon line, but that is a minor point.
    Looking forward to your reprocessed image- it will look great,
    Gail

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    Hi Tony, Since everyone (including me) loves, loves, loves the grasses I took some off the top to better emphasize the birds and the habitat. In addition, I pulled the Curve up quite a bit and lightened the image even more with a Levels adjustment. And selectively sharpened the face with a Contrast Mask.

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    Thanks for the feedback everyone! Didn’t realize it until I looked at it with a fresh set of eyes this morning but yeah it’s super dark. I played around with the exposure a bit and bumped it up by 3/4 of a stop and now it looks much better. I’m going to work on sharpening and noise reduction when I get home and I’ll probably revise my crop per Arthur’s suggestion.

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    Agree with the frame being to dark. The head on pose is nice and i like the two toned background.

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    Ok I went back and started fresh, I applied a bit of NR (12 on the luminance slider in Lightroom) and played with the sharpening masking a bit more to reduce the sharpening of the noise in the background. I still have no idea why there's that much noise to begin with at ISO 400. I also moved my crop a bit lower to show more of the field per Arthur's suggestion and then I applied a contrast sharpening mask in Photoshop to sharpen the face a bit. I need to clone out the bright spots in the background again with this new edit but wanted to get feedback before I do that again. Once again, thanks for all of your C&C and feedback!

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    Lifetime Member gail bisson's Avatar
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    It looks much better.
    I would run noise reduction in photoshop CC by selecting the background only and then run some NR at 8. I just bought Neat Image for noise reduction and it works very well and is very easy to master. However, PS CC will do the job well.
    The increase in exposure look good. Sharpening looks good as well,
    Gail

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    Yeah I want to look into getting NI and Arthur/Ari’s guide on that and DPP, Lightroom applies some default sharpening that I think is increasing noise off the bat. I’ll give that a go tonight though in PS, thanks!

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    A night and day difference between your 2 versions, nicely done

    Mike

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    Quote Originally Posted by Anthony Barsotti View Post
    Yeah I want to look into getting NI and Arthur/Ari’s guide on that and DPP, Lightroom applies some default sharpening that I think is increasing noise off the bat. I’ll give that a go tonight though in PS, thanks!
    YAW Tony. Glad to help. Here are the two links:]

    The Post Processing Guides are here.

    The DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide is here.

    with love, artie
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Very nice incoming pose with hint of habitat. Good comments above. Repost a definate improvement, once you remove the light streak.

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