Where were you last night?

[wendell westfall]

D70s 70-200VR+2X@260 1/000 f/5.6 ISO500 0EV handheld

The sun never came on this dark morning -- good for retaining the whites, but not so good otherwise. This pair seemed to be in an argument; I got other poses but this one seemed to fit the title best. I cropped and ran NR and USM and added a catch-light in the eye and darkened the beaks -- and left the lines in the water (how does that work?). C&C appreciated . . .

Wendell

[Indranil Sircar]

Nice presentation and I like the interaction. The reflection and the circles around it works well. The lines on the top seems to drag me away from the interaction. Even cropping a bit from the top may enhance it better, IMHO. The other option would be to go highkey. Let's see how others feel about it. My other comment would be to run another round of NR and a small ccw rotation. TFS.

[Alfred Forns]

Good points made and I was wondering what the histogram looked like? For those conditions a plus compensation is usually in order.

Would probably corp to the next to the last line up top then clone the last one. Like interaction and love the tittle !!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Wendell,
I like the intense captured action...would suggest cropping 1/4 from the top, to place more concentration on your subjects...well done...:cool:

[wendell westfall]

Thanks to Indranil, Alfred and Gus re. the crop; you all agree! And Alfred almost all the histogram information is in the 4th segment from the left side. And Indranil I ran two maximum passes of NR on the background in PS Elements. I'm beginning to think the NR in that program is not very effective, or I'm using it wrong.

[Anita Rakestraw]

I have nothing to add, Wendell, just wanted to say that I like this! As for the noise, on my monitor the background looks fine; I see just a little noise remaining on their little behinds; which would need only a very light touch of NR; not much at all. Nice image!!

[wendell westfall]

I'm happy about that, Anita. I still can't see it though, and often have that trouble with noise critiques. How best is it to detect the problem?

[Indranil Sircar]

Hi Wendell, Anita is correct; another NR on the birds may be just enough. The challenge is that some more of the details will be lost. There is a primer on noise reduction in the educational resources forum; not sure if you had a chance to look it. http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=23825
I have started using Topaz DeNoise in most of my images. Depending on how much details i am loosing, i just run it on the background or copy the subject to a new layer, run denoise and then add layer mask to paint over to selectively open up the subject.

[Katie Rupp]

Hi Wendell, agree with previous comments and, thanks, your image gives me a smile.:)

[wendell westfall]

Hi Indranil,

Your comments re. Noise are very helpful. I have had real problems with that in the past (and still today). I had not looked at the primer in Educational Resources that you reference. A cursory look tells me it is very valuable, and I will study it in more detail soon. Thanks for your remarks . . .