I'm trying to find the line for myself on when to "save" an image and when to just let it go.
With that in mind, I'm revisiting some of my very first digital images to see if I can reprocess them better and also find that line.
This was at Beattie's Guest Ranch in Hereford, AZ back in 2004
D2H ISO 200
400mm f2.8 MF lens (Don't have it anymore)
1/1000 @ f2.8
I probably had this on an old pistol grip head back then, which was way short of what I needed for that lens.
Post:
This is a bit over 1/4 of the frame.
It was underexposed so I boosted the exposure 2 stops in Lightroom.
Shadow / Highlight in CS3.
I did a 3 pixel Gaussian blur to tone down noise in the BG, then took the blur tool to some areas that were still not smooth enough.
Resized and Smart Sharpened the bird 100% with .2 radius.
I still ended up with a little halo even after contracting the selection, so I went back over it with the blur tool. There are still bits and pieces of the halo around.
Was it worth it or over the line? Well, if I were still in SE Arizona, I would try to get a better image to start with, but now that I'm not anywhere near this species, I'll keep it until I get to go back.
The bird itself as subject is a beauty- great details and exposure that looks fine on my LCD. Compositionally though, the bird angle is a bit steep and the blurring perfromed has impacted the wire, differently than our eye would expect to see. If this were the only or best iamge of this species in my files, I would keep it. When you go back, you'll hopefully do well.
Jim
The fun of digital is to revisit past images. I have kept some images over the years and found treasures once I learned more PS. Unless you have better, I'd keep this one. The hummer is beautiful. Granted it's a little steep....but the color and detail are very good. I agree with Jeff on the blurred wire. I'd select it and the bird for selective sharpening next time.
Bird on a wire Rufous Hummer
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