Hi
(I have changed images sorry - posted one in error)
My favorite birds
Need some help ; this is one of a series of pictures I took of this bird in the early early evening in Costa Rica
I had changed ISO to 800 as I couldn't get ss of > 250 at 5.6 @ 400mm and was worried movement would cause blur. I had waited weeks to capture these woodpeckers and there was one right in open view :) Canon 40D 100-400IS @400 1/320, AUTOWB , Centre weighted average, manual, 0Ev. Did the ISO setting cause excess noise and can this be sorted.
I have adjusted levels; red on head is still a little blown - how do I adjust the saturation in one isolated part of an image, with a mask?
and sharpened one pass unsharp then selective on bird.
The picture is cropped
Oh and of course I am now a member!
Last edited by Richard Unsworth; 07-21-2010 at 07:41 AM.
Reason: addition
I don't know which software you are using but in photoshop you can look under image adjustments and selective color.....at that point you can choose red and adjust the saturation to your liking. This will only affect the reds in the image and may bring out more detail.
Nice bird...I might consider trying to bring out some detail in the blacks as well...and consider cropping some off the left. Also perhaps some noise reduction on the background.
There are several threads on this issue here at BPN, you can search for them and find more detailed advice.
Congratulations on catching this species! The reds can easily be adjusted by selecting just that area on a separate layer and desaturating the red channel. Noise can be reduced (background only) using one of the many good new products -- I use Topaz DeNoise 4 but I notice others use different products. In an ideal world he might have turned his head the other way to get more even lighting on his face, but you might be able to lighten up the darker areas, and maybe get a bit more detail out of the blacks. Did you think about a vertical crop?
Hi Richard ,good advice by Joel and Bill regarding lowering the saturation. I love the subject(one of which I've never seen) but would suggest trying to bring up more detail in the darks which is doable(selecting the area and using a small amt of S/H)
I also agree with cropping some off the left.
Have worked on red and black, started again and sel sharpened various areas notably head/claws.
cropped vertically and backed off alittle, as that works well for woodpeckers! Also cut noise by using blur filter (surface blur), on channels.
Also desaturated blacks on bird with sponge tool.
What do you think now ?
thanks for comments/advice much appreciated
Rich
Last edited by Richard Unsworth; 07-21-2010 at 10:28 AM.
Reason: add text
Hi - agree with the advice already given - cool bird and a tough one with those strips of white. As far as noise goes - any adjustments be it S/H or the likes is going to make the noise worse if the image was under exposed to start with - so the lack of detail in the blacks can be adjusted with S/H but will exaggerate the noise - have to get the exposure really close in camera to avoid. Push your histogram as far right as you can without getting any over exposure blinkies.
(The other option is too over expose the whites just a little so that they can be recovered but giving you more detail in the blacks)
Some of the whites are already on the edge of being over - if they are like that in the RAW - you have done all you could here - The dynamic range of the scene was greater than what the camera could capture - so only options softer light or fill flash.
Pale - billed Woodpecker
