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Thread: Yellow Headed Blackbird Hard Turn

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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    Default Yellow Headed Blackbird Hard Turn

    Name:  Yellow-Headed-Blackbird-Berkley-Brian-Sump_9563-SIG-FORUM.jpg
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    Taken the same morning as I was shooting the Avocets previously posted (about 715am). This handsome fella came at me and flared nicely right in front of the camera.

    EDITS:

    - I had to take some wing parts from another photo and bring them in with PS sadly as there was a large reed coming into the image. I wonder if it's obvious - hopefully not to the naked eye.
    - I made some minor sharpening, contrast, color and tonal edits in LR. Then I brought into PS for bkg and wing edits (cleaned up bkg distractions)
    - First try at the smart sharpen. I think I masked the background properly (pulled the bird into new layer) and then smart sharpened at about 170 with 1.1 radius and minor noise reduction. Added a tad of spot sharpen around the eye
    - Then resized and re-sharpened at 50 and 0.5 radius per recommendations from Ari in another thread.

    Hopefully I got the process right. Okay to sharpen globally (little in LR then more using SS in PS), and another final after resizing?

    NOTE - it is a little tightly cropped. Unfortunately the bottom edge is as captured so his right wing came relatively close to the edge. I just executed the ~ 40% crop from the top down instead of adding to canvas in the bottom in PS.

    Nikon D500
    Sigma 500mm f4
    Handheld
    ISO 200
    f5.6
    1/2000

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    BPN Member Jack Backs's Avatar
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    I like the dynamic pose and the background. Nothing is obvious to my eye with whatever you did with the wings. The bird has a little over-processed look to it..maybe a little too sharpened.

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    Wicked pose, bummer about the clipped tail. I would not have suspected any PS trickery with the wings, and still cannot tell where it happened, so good for you on that. The bird shows some subtle subject movement on the face, and it looks like you tried to compensate that with some aggressive sharpening. 1/2000s. is most often still too slow for songbirds in flight. Don't be afraid to raise that ISO! Love those huge feet...

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    Awesome pose and BG. I agree with the above that things look over-sharpened. Everyone has a different way of doing this, but I sharpen at the RAW stage globally, and then just once again after resizing. Looking at the PS SHP edits in your caption, my personal feeling is that they may be too aggressive and resulting in a crunchy appearance. I would try just the one round of SHP after resizing and see if you like that result. I would do a touch more NR to the BG and maybe add some canvas all around as it does seem a bit tight. There is a cloning or other artifacts around the lower wing, just 4 or so of the feathers, that you could clean up. A very nice frame that might just need some additional TLC in post. TFS

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    BPN Member dankearl's Avatar
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    I don't think it was sharp enough to begin with.
    I just sharpen when I downsize, if the file is sharp, you don't need to do anything to the Tiff file.
    If you are going to make a print or something, I would use smart sharpen or high pass sharpening
    on the bird only.
    With the light you have, once you raise your iso limits, you should get better images by just
    using a much faster SS.
    Dan Kearl

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    OK, weird, I see a clipped tail here, but a fully included one on the thumbnail........so I take that part of my critique back

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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Daniel Cadieux View Post
    OK, weird, I see a clipped tail here, but a fully included one on the thumbnail........so I take that part of my critique back
    Daniel, at first I thought you were just referring to the first tail feather that lost a chunk at the end. In fact, in the original it is dangling by a thread so I just stamped it out. I wonder why it was showing that way for you?

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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    This is quite a handsome capture IMO. OK, the head is not completely sharp. Some good critique. Next time raise the ISO to at least 400 and increase the SS to 2500 or better, 3200. Exposure on the blacks looks good to me. For me the biggest problem is too tight in the frame which you mentioned. Easy to add some canvas. Ditto Alex's suggestions re sharpening.

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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dix View Post
    This is quite a handsome capture IMO. OK, the head is not completely sharp. Some good critique. Next time raise the ISO to at least 400 and increase the SS to 2500 or better, 3200. Exposure on the blacks looks good to me. For me the biggest problem is too tight in the frame which you mentioned. Easy to add some canvas. Ditto Alex's suggestions re sharpening.
    Thank you kindly Bill.

    When you add canvas in PS, what's your preferred method? Just curious. I usually rectangle select a portion closes to the edge, paste then flip horizontal and blend any lines. Don't think I've ever studied a more proper way, this just made sense.

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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    Name:  Yellow-Headed-Blackbird-Berkley-Brian-Sump_9563-SIG-FORUM.jpg
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    Ok all, I gave it the best I had.

    I re-imported into PS from LR, added to the canvas on all sides and re-cropped. It feels better to me at least...

    Then I did a proper background mask with edge refine on the bird and applied a smart sharpen of about 115 with radius 1 and exported for larger file.

    Re-sized to 1900 px wide and re-sharpened using smart again at 45 with 0.4 radius and exported.

    I realized I did over-sharpen before and I've resolved myself that the yellow in the head just looks smeared due to my SS, which I will practice increasing with ISO per many recommendations this week.

    Feel free to chime in again. I appreciate everyone's honest feedback.

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    Super Moderator arash_hazeghi's Avatar
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    repost is much better now, looks pretty good overall,. the RAW was probably not tack sharp (some evidence of motion blur) given you shutter speed was 1/2000sec. for song birds in flight I try to be at 1/3200sec at least if not at 1/4000 sec. the pose is really dynamic and the light was perfect illuminating those blacks nicely, in a perfect world head would have been a bit towards us

    TFS
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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi View Post
    repost is much better now, looks pretty good overall,. the RAW was probably not tack sharp (some evidence of motion blur) given you shutter speed was 1/2000sec. for song birds in flight I try to be at 1/3200sec at least if not at 1/4000 sec. the pose is really dynamic and the light was perfect illuminating those blacks nicely, in a perfect world head would have been a bit towards us

    TFS
    Thanks for being so helpful Ari.

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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Sump View Post
    Thank you kindly Bill.

    When you add canvas in PS, what's your preferred method? Just curious. I usually rectangle select a portion closes to the edge, paste then flip horizontal and blend any lines. Don't think I've ever studied a more proper way, this just made sense.
    Brian, whatever you did in your repost worked very nicely. Your "paste and flip" is one method. I often go to Image/Canvas Size and add canvas on one or more sides, then use the Clone Tool to clone in the empty space(s) from appropriate nearby areas. I have sometimes selected a rectangle, gone to Edit/Free Transform, and grabbed the handle on the rectangle to stretch it into the added space. This works sometimes but can often look very funky depending on the edge condition you are stretching.

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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dix View Post
    Brian, whatever you did in your repost worked very nicely. Your "paste and flip" is one method. I often go to Image/Canvas Size and add canvas on one or more sides, then use the Clone Tool to clone in the empty space(s) from appropriate nearby areas. I have sometimes selected a rectangle, gone to Edit/Free Transform, and grabbed the handle on the rectangle to stretch it into the added space. This works sometimes but can often look very funky depending on the edge condition you are stretching.
    Okay thanks Bill

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    Agree with the others here. But a neat frame for sure.

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