I captured this image at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. I think this bird is mostly black, much depends in what light it is viewed. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.
Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED, camera and lens supported by a monopod
1/2000 F/8 Matrix Metering EV +1 ISO 1000 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 220mm
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2020 and Neat Image for noise reduction, a couple intruding branches removed from the background
Cropped for composition and presentation
P.S. Learn more about Circle B Bar Reserve in the BAA Middle Florida Photography Site Guide that Artie and I co-authored. It is available at this link The BAA Middle of Florida Site Guide
Last edited by Joseph Przybyla; 07-05-2020 at 05:58 PM.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Hi Joe, from recollection I'm not sure if you say you do apply NI across the whole image or not, but as Brian mentioned the noise under the wing and head is not ideal and so was the image slightly under exposed? The sharpening looks better, have we turned a corner? Having the open bill is nice and it appears the subjects is almost doing a balancing act.
Joe, OK I'm on my crappy MB pro laptop, so I'm hesitant as I tend to work on numbers & histogram here, but using a full channels curves adjustment it tends, I think, to address things in the mid to 3/4 tones, then saturation/vibrance for the iridescent colours as another PS adjustment. The image has some nice potential Joe, like the vulture. Ran some NR via LR.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Nice pose and the iridescence shows well.
I think you were a bit heavy handed in raising the exposure under the wing and around the feet.
I see lots of noise under the wing and the area around the feet lacks contrast and looks washed out.
Steve's repost looks good,
Gail
Hi Joe, from recollection I'm not sure if you say you do apply NI across the whole image or not, but as Brian mentioned the noise under the wing and head is not ideal and so was the image slightly under exposed? The sharpening looks better, have we turned a corner? Having the open bill is nice and it appears the subjects is almost doing a balancing act.
Joe, OK I'm on my crappy MB pro laptop, so I'm hesitant as I tend to work on numbers & histogram here, but using a full channels curves adjustment it tends, I think, to address things in the mid to 3/4 tones, then saturation/vibrance for the iridescent colours as another PS adjustment. The image has some nice potential Joe, like the vulture. Ran some NR via LR.
TFS
Steve
Hi Steve, I think we have turned a corner after our most recent emails. The radius for sharpening this image was 0.5. The bird was underexposed I had raised the exposure to +1 because of the dark bird against the bright sky but not enough to expose the bird correctly. I could have gone to +2 or +3 but that would have blown out the sky leaving for a white background. So in post processing I did lift the exposure on the bird and shadows. In this repost I did work on the noise on the bill and underwing mentioned in the comments locally with the adjustment brush. I guess I am missing what you are seeing in the 3/4 tones. As for the iridescence, as in most images, what is natural and what is pushed too far. I try to go with experience of seeing many of the birds and push the scale on the natural side. Thanks for viewing, commenting and offering suggestions, much appreciated.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Hi Steve, I think we have turned a corner after our most recent emails.
Hurrah, so it was beneficial, plus a nice exchange too.
As for the iridescence, as in most images, what is natural and what is pushed too far.
I'm with you, here and the vulture I can only suggest and may have here push a tad too far, not knowing the subject, but also to hopefully indicate what can be achieved too, if required.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.