The rest of the sign says "Keep Out" -- wish I had gotten that part. I was sitting and looking beyond the sign, while taking pictures of avocets (thus the minus EV) out on the pond. This black phoebe (I think) landed on the sign for a bit; and I got off four quick shots. Minor crop and sharpening, with some fill light and exposure and tone curve highlights adjustments in LR2. Thanks for looking . . .
It is a cute image Wendell, good to be looking out for these !!! Got lots of feather detail in the shadows and sharp !!! ... good point on the bg Jeff !!
Thanks, guys! And, no, I did not run NR on the BG. Can you see noise there? It is a topic I have had trouble with in the past -- seeing noise in an image and correcting it. Please make some further observations on the topic. I'd really appreciate your input.
Hi Wendell, I'm no expert but the noise (graininess) is pretty noticeable in the BG (though I've seen much, much worse). Fortunately, noise is easy to remove almost entirely from the sky without affecting in any way the rest of the image. There are plenty of software packages for this job, but I'm partial to Nik's Dfine: it removes essentially all BG noise in no time flat, and it takes about 3 minutes to learn to use the program (yes, it's that easy and intuitive to use; and, no, I am not affiliated in any way to Nik). Whichever program you use, the quality of almost any image will improve after applying some NR. To coin a phrase: try it, you'll like it!
BTW, just like you have trouble seeing noise, I have trouble seeing a color cast so I always have to be on the lookout.
Hi Ricardo:
Thanks for your comments! On more than one of my images I've had trouble seeing noise, even when I look closely for it. This image, for example, looks pretty smooth to me. Given my critical shortcoming, I always look at my pictures particularly closely for noise. I guess I will have to get a program such as Nik's Define and use it on every image. Incidentally, one more thing. Did you zoom the image, or was it quite noticeable as posted? I appreciate your comments, Ricardo. And I'm going to work at this critical weakness of mine . . .
Hi Wendell, the noise was noticeable to me the moment I saw the image as posted. After reading your detailed explanation above, I now appreciate further your difficulty in identifying noise. I'm pretty sure you would benefit from a cool feature in Dfine (which may be available in other programs as well, don't know) that allows you to compare side by side any portion of the original image at up to 300% magnification with the same portion after Dfine's algorithm reduces the noise. My predictable reaction to this comparison is "wow." I always make this 300% comparison on every single image that I post, so that if there is any noticeable noise in the original, you should see it right away; IMO it is next to impossible to miss it.
I understand your frustration because we're all trying to post better images, which of course includes having negligible noise. To deal with my problem with color casts I check every image's white, black, AND 50% gray points with Levels in PS. The point is that I have a tool that allows me to "see" what my eyes can easily miss. In other words, I can "fly by instruments." Once you get a good NR software, I'm confident you'll be able to do the same with your problem.
I look forward to seeing your noise-free images, and am really glad I could be of some help to you.
On guard
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