BIF Gull II

[Ilija Dukovski]

Another gull from Plum Island a week ago.
Good BIF practice :)
I had real hard time getting rid of posterization of the sky BG
in the jpeg. Not sure what is best method for that?

CC appreciated.

Nikon D700 300mm+TC14 f/5.6 1/4000 Matrix AP-1/3 ISO400

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Sharpness, pose and eye contact look very good. I might lighten the underside of the far wing a little.

[Fabs Forns]

Ilija, I agree it's good practice and bit of bread can have them hover over you like angels.

This may be old news to you, but just in case, a way to avoid halos or posterization when sharpening birds in uniform BGs:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ead.php?t=6040

[Ilija Dukovski]

Thanks Axel,

I might lighten the underside of the far wing a little.

Yup, good point. Thanks for reminding me.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Thanks Fabs,

This may be old news to you, but just in case, a way to avoid halos or posterization when sharpening birds in uniform BGs:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ead.php?t=6040

Thanks for the link, this is exactly what I do. The problem however here was
that I have noise on the sky that looks like ugly patches. If I de-noise or blur
I get even uglier posterization with very well visible lines and curves.
If I do average the problem is solved, but I loose the color and brightness gradation too.
I think what would solve the problem is to ADD color noise but of very high frequency
after the original de-noise and blur. I tried to do that with Filter->Noise->Add noise..
in PS, but did not look good. I'll experiment bit more, and let you know if I get anything good.

Thanks again,

[Fabs Forns]

Why areyou having that problem in the shy in the first place? Did you heavily underexpose and are bringing the EXP up in p/p? 1/4000 seems like pretty fast to me, not knowing the kind of light you got there. You're only 1/3 under sunny 16. D700 is a pretty clean camera. I'm lost :confused:

[Ilija Dukovski]

Why areyou having that problem in the shy in the first place? Did you heavily underexpose and are bringing the EXP up in p/p?

No quite the opposite, I darkened the sky.
It could be my monitor (laptop):(
I took a closer look at the images with blue sky on this forum and other sites
and I can see the patchiness/posterization on many of them.
Is something wrong with my monitor or am I too picky about this:D
Can you please tell me if you see anything like that on my image above,
or is it OK?

Thanks a bunch,

[Jim Fenton]

I like it and agree with Axel about the under-wing.

IMHO, the reason you're having sky issues is exactly because it's too dark and one of the components is underexposed and blocking up.

Go into selective color of Hue / saturation and play with the lightness / saturation / amount of black...whatever, and I think by brightening it, you'll loose the problem.

[Fabs Forns]

Ilija, my old (but expensive) eyes can't see anything in the jpg.
Laptops, in my experience, can be quite treacherous. Wish Axel would chime in, he's got Eagle's eyes.
I'll PM him and have him take a look, how's that?

[Ilija Dukovski]

Ilija, my old (but expensive) eyes can't see anything in the jpg.
Laptops, in my experience, can be quite treacherous. Wish Axel would chime in, he's got Eagle's eyes.
I'll PM him and have him take a look, how's that?

Sounds perfect to me:) If you don't see a problem it must be a monitor issue.
I need a good monitor (and a desktop of course), any suggestions:)

[Ilija Dukovski]

I like it and agree with Axel about the under-wing.

IMHO, the reason you're having sky issues is exactly because it's too dark and one of the components is underexposed and blocking up.

Go into selective color of Hue / saturation and play with the lightness / saturation / amount of black...whatever, and I think by brightening it, you'll loose the problem.

Thanks Jim, I agree darkening makes it even worse, but I see the effect even in the bright
raw file. I think it is a monitor issue too.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

There is a bit of noise in the sky but there is not much posterization on my monitor. I'm on a MacBook Pro right now.

The color of the sky is a bit dark, lightening it and maybe some NR might work.

[Ilija Dukovski]

There is a bit of noise in the sky but there is not much posterization on my monitor. I'm on a MacBook Pro right now.

The color of the sky is a bit dark, lightening it and maybe some NR might work.

Great, thanks Axel, I guess I need to be careful when I darken sky BGs.

[Markus Jais]

I like the wing pose, head angle, the composition and the sharpness in this shot.
I agree with Axel about lightening the darker underwing a bit.

Markus

[Jim Crosswell]

Great wing position and sharpness in this flight shot.