A bit of orange

[wendell westfall]

D90 70-200VR+2X@400 1/1250 f/5.6 ISO400 0EV handheld

Here is a Great-tailed Grackle in a typical pose -- scrounging for food in a parking lot. I came across the bird when I stopped to do some grocery shopping at noon yesterday on my way back home from an unsuccessful bird photography outing earlier that day. The orange was eaten quickly and she flew away. I did a small crop and tweaked the image a bit. I'd particularly appreciate any observations regarding noise and sharpness. Thanks in advance.

Wendell

[Jeff Cashdollar]

wendell, what method of sharpness did you use and how much. The image could be sharper but not bad. Sharping is an art and I continue to learn and refine my processes. I read in one of Artie's books he uses USM and applies it three times on some mages at different steps. I use a method learned in APTATS II.

I love shots like this, well done. I might lighten the subject with levels or dodge/burn. A tad tight on the left IMO. Might try shadows and highlights too.

[wendell westfall]

Jeff, the tweaking was done in LR3. I used Luminance Smoothing (NR) at +67 and Sharpening at +111. I could have done heavier Sharpening , of course, but I was concerned about noise.

[Rob Miner]

D90 70-200VR+2X@400 1/1250 f/5.6 ISO400 0EV handheld

Here is a Great-tailed Grackle in a typical pose -- scrounging for food in a parking lot. I came across the bird when I stopped to do some grocery shopping at noon yesterday on my way back home from an unsuccessful bird photography outing earlier that day. The orange was eaten quickly and she flew away. I did a small crop and tweaked the image a bit. I'd particularly appreciate any observations regarding noise and sharpness. Thanks in advance.

Wendell

Wendell, a bit of thought on noise reducing software. I have tried several noise reducing programs. I find that the noise on a file (picture) taken on one camera will differ from the use of one software to another. Now this could be my inexperience, but I currently have three different software to reduce noise on my hard drive and alternate to find the one that gives me the cleanest file. Note: I was not counting Photoshop 5 or ACR also on my machine.

Rob.............

[wendell westfall]

Rob, I've considered buying noise software for some time. And I think I will try Noise Ninja. I seem to have noise problems even with my D90 @ ISO400 . . . or maybe it is simply the "wrong time of day" when I make the images. In any case, much as I read about the subject, i often think I do not "see" noise in an image that others "see" and I'd like to correct that. Thanks for your thought . . .

[Rob Miner]

Rob, I've considered buying noise software for some time. And I think I will try Noise Ninja. I seem to have noise problems even with my D90 @ ISO400 . . . or maybe it is simply the "wrong time of day" when I make the images. In any case, much as I read about the subject, i often think I do not "see" noise in an image that others "see" and I'd like to correct that. Thanks for your thought . . .

I have and use Noise Ninja, Define and Imagenomic Noiseware Pro.

Rob..............

[John Chardine]

I wish I have GTGRs in my parking lot Wendell!

Noise looks good to me but I think the subject could use a sharpness boost. I would also try brightening the face and eye area.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Wendell, nice shooting angle on this one! The bird seems a bit dark, which you could fix in LR3 using fill light and then adding blacks to bring back the contrast. I find that LR3, even with the improvement to noise reduction and sharpening, is not the best place to do either task. I would suggest that you check out the Topaz plugins, which work in LR as well as PS. I use Topaz DeNoise for noise reduction and Topaz Detail for sharpening. I also have Noise Ninja, Noise Ware Pro, and Define. I like Noise Ninja because you can create a profile for your own camera and it will use that for reducing noise. Works reallly well! I don't see any significant noise in this image but I agree that it could be a bit sharper.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I use Topaz DeNoise as a plug in to CS5, very happy with results, functionality and ease of use.

[John Chardine]

Me too. It is excellent and part of an excellent suite.

[wendell westfall]

Thanks to all . . . I will download an NR program, and perhaps lessen a "noise headache" I have all too frequently.