I captured this image along Joe Overstreet Road in Kenansville, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.
Nikon D500
Nikon 50mm F/5.6 VR AF-S ED PF + Nikon 1.4 III Teleconverter, HH
1/3200 F/8 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 900 Auto 1 WB, image captured at 700mm (1050mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Topaz Denoise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI
Cropped 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
Joe, the wing stretch is super sweet here. Almost hypnotizing...
Love it and the super clean green/yellow bkg. The image seems a bit bright in a few spots such as the lower left perch, left leg and a bit of the yellow on the chest. Perhaps you could touch those a bit?
Otherwise, I'd try to brush out some of the denoise as the black is very dense and almost like a paintbrush in parts of the coverts and the black neck band.
A really cool pose of a fairly common subject, nicely done!
HI Joe ... a very nice looking bird and the wing stretch is cool , specially in combo with the head turn .
Here on my screen I do miss critical sharpness and I think the contrast is a wee bit high , IMO .
Looks like a Topaz use on steroids .... too smooth for my taste , but tastes are different here and there
Nice shot Jo lovely pose, the perch is just fine with me.
The processing looks rather heavy to me: do you need Topaz Denoise and Topaz AI - on the same image bearing in mind that Denoise had already applied a hefty dose of sharpening - unless overidden considerably? I don't know which AI setting you used but I suggest lessen it a little, talking of which I think Topaz users are conditioned into thinking AI is the bees knees - I agree it can be good but don't overlook Clear - it sometimes gives better results. The trouble with these AI plug ins is that they look at an image and then decide to invent certain textures and this is not always good. Colours are a little dense for me the blacks are inky black and I think the yellows would benefit from a tad less colour and luminosity. It's a good image and certainly worth having another look at.
Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, much appreciated.
Andreas and Jonathan, reviewing the image I agree with both of you regarding the use of Topaz Denoise and Sharpen. After using both for a while I am of the opinion that they should be used for images that need more than ordinary post processing, especially Topaz Sharpen AI. Topaz Sharpen AI looks for motion blur and out of focus in images. It appears when there is none the software can eliminate fine detail and grain in images. That being said I have only used the software on the auto settings. Maybe if time was spent changing the auto settings it might work better on images that are in focus without motion blur. Here is a edit and repost of the image using Neat Image for noise reduction and Lightroom for sharpening.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Hi Joe .... RP looks better to me .
So one question is arising in my mind ... why bothering dealing with Topaz ????????
Second question why using NR in any form at Iso 800 ???? Is the D500 that " bad" in terms of noise at these low Iso settings ???
At 1/3200 sec ... the image should be pin pin sharp , IMHO , so what is the need of Sharpen Ai .
Hi Joe .... RP looks better to me .
So one question is arising in my mind ... why bothering dealing with Topaz ????????
Second question why using NR in any form at Iso 800 ???? Is the D500 that " bad" in terms of noise at these low Iso settings ???
At 1/3200 sec ... the image should be pin pin sharp , IMHO , so what is the need of Sharpen Ai .
Cheers Andreas
Hi Andreas, regarding your questions... you are correct on all counts. Topaz is a new software to me, so I have been evaluating it, figuring you it might work into my workflow when needed. I know you disagree but I use Neat Image noise reduction at the default setting of 60% on all my photos if I have a pure background. Neat Image samples an area of the pure background that is without any detail (only noise present) to determine the amount of noise. Most time the noise reduction applied is very small but that provides a smoother background. The D500 is not bad regarding noise, it like all cameras correct exposure no matter what the ISO number is leads to a pretty much noise free image. Underexposing is death to the image. Now that I have tried and evaluated Topaz software I will save that for when I am trying to save a borderline delete image that I like.
Thanks Andreas for coming back and asking those questions, it shows you care.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Eastern Meadowlark... Wing Stretch
Joseph Przybyla thanked for this post
, but tastes are different here and there
Originally Posted by Andreas Liedmann
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