I captured this image at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. 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
1/1000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 3600 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 400mm
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2020 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped slightly for composition and presentation
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Hi Joe, nice encounter and I love the calling aspect. I also like the fact the subject is placed off centre, but would like a tad more at the foot if you have it? it's a cracking setting Joe, which we had this over the pond!
As presented and an viewing on my MB Pro so I'm slightly hesitant, but I would go a tad warmer on the Temp and tweak the Tint slider, its a little magenta to the eye. In addition, you may find dropping the Exp a third and adding a little Clarity & Dehaze brings a bit more depth, along with a Curves Midtone adjustment, it just brings a some overall contrast back in. Contrast as in a figure of speech, not by adding Contrast. As I know you like LR and the adj Brush, use the Dodge & Burn tool, but don't have the Flow at 100% build it up... finally I might just tone the greens down, but personal pref.
Not sure if it's the applied NR, although you say you only apply it to the BKG, but the face/eye just looks flat, it lacks some definition, perhaps a little more USM?
Joe, pull both into PS and compare side by side, you know how too and then with the raw pullout all that lovely detail you originally capture. I think it would be worth revisiting the file, it's lovely Joe.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Joe, nice encounter and I love the calling aspect. I also like the fact the subject is placed off centre, but would like a tad more at the foot if you have it? it's a cracking setting Joe, which we had this over the pond!
As presented and an viewing on my MB Pro so I'm slightly hesitant, but I would go a tad warmer on the Temp and tweak the Tint slider, its a little magenta to the eye. In addition, you may find dropping the Exp a third and adding a little Clarity & Dehaze brings a bit more depth, along with a Curves Midtone adjustment, it just brings a some overall contrast back in. Contrast as in a figure of speech, not by adding Contrast. As I know you like LR and the adj Brush, use the Dodge & Burn tool, but don't have the Flow at 100% build it up... finally I might just tone the greens down, but personal pref.
Not sure if it's the applied NR, although you say you only apply it to the BKG, but the face/eye just looks flat, it lacks some definition, perhaps a little more USM?
Joe, pull both into PS and compare side by side, you know how too and then with the raw pullout all that lovely detail you originally capture. I think it would be worth revisiting the file, it's lovely Joe.
TFS
Steve
Hi Steve, thank you for viewing and commenting. File revisited... went back to the original and changed the crop to add more to the bottom. Then I did as you suggested and compared the images side by side until I thought I had the changes right, temperature, tint, exposure, clarity and dehaze. Judging from the green leaves I thought you had gone too far because this was captured in May and the Bald Cypress had only begun to leaf out. Here is my edit.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Joe, at first it felt a little too busy however after looking more I also see beauty in the surroundings as a sort of taxonomic frame. Gorgeous subject and pose.
You know, a couple posts ago I made a comment about sharpness around the eye and head. I see it here as well. But interestingly Steve's repost (which I quite like) is a good bit sharper.
Did you make gross modifications to your sharpening process (i.e. smart sharpen to USM or something)?
Hi Joe, looks good, but ultimately do you think it's an improvement and things have moved in the right direction, I can only offer suggestions?
Fine, no idea on this one, so your lead.
Hi Steve, of course it is an improvement. It was adding clarity and dehaze when I could see a marked improvement in the image especially the bird. Comparing the original post to the post after editing it was obvious how flat the original post was. I need to develop your ability to look at a image and see what would improve it. Thanks again, stay healthy my friend.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Joe, at first it felt a little too busy however after looking more I also see beauty in the surroundings as a sort of taxonomic frame. Gorgeous subject and pose.
You know, a couple posts ago I made a comment about sharpness around the eye and head. I see it here as well. But interestingly Steve's repost (which I quite like) is a good bit sharper.
Did you make gross modifications to your sharpening process (i.e. smart sharpen to USM or something)?
Hi Brian, thank you for viewing and commenting. Regarding sharpening I did not change that in the reposted image. The improvement is perceived sharpening that came from adding clarity and dehaze using the sliders in the Lightroom Develop module (I had Steve's edit and my image side by side making changes to match his). I never use Smart Sharpen or USM in Photoshop, I use Lightroom Detail module for all my sharpening. I like the Masking slider that shows where the sharpening will be applied, white gets sharpened black does not. As Steve has told me before, sharpening, clarity and dehaze are all forms of contrast, each sharpens in its own way. In my workflow I don't sharpen the original, on import Lightroom adds a sharpening of 40, I zero that out. I sharpen the 16bit TIFF after all other work is done, that last work on a image is sharpening. When posting a image on BPN I use the Lightroom Export module to convert the TIFF to a resized JPEG and to sharpen the JPEG for posting.
Last edited by Joseph Przybyla; 07-18-2020 at 06:25 PM.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
I guess I was saying that Steve's seemed sharper in a good way than both the original and your repost. Sorry for not clarifying.
Reason for asking is that I never really noticed much under sharpening from you but lately maybe more so. Was curious if you changed anything in your process. Ultimately for me, a bit more sharpening, through adding contrast or otherwise might help this one from my angle.
Very nice setting. Like the moss and open bill. When I was using Lightroom, I noticed that exporting from lightroom had some issues (I discussed that with denise ippolitto as well) After her testing and confirmation I started exporting from Photoshop.
I dont use lightroom any more and all my sharpening and exporting is done in Photoshop. Just an FYI.
Hi Steve, of course it is an improvement. It was adding clarity and dehaze when I could see a marked improvement in the image especially the bird. Comparing the original post to the post after editing it was obvious how flat the original post was. I need to develop your ability to look at a image and see what would improve it. Thanks again, stay healthy my friend.
Hi Joe, I'm pleased, I can't do anything after the image has been capture re the techs, but if I can shed some light that may help the PP side then happy to do so as you know. Joe, as I said the other day in our exchanges, leave the file after being 'processed' and do the overnight test with a fresh pair of eyes, 24hrs won't make a difference in when you upload, but you might just then feel it may need a tweak again, subtle perhaps, but it could make all the deference.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.