Night Heron plus noise.

[Ian McHenry]

I was reasonably happy with a picture of a Nankeen Night Heron taken a few days ago but when I looked at it this morning felt it lacked detail.
So I experimented with Noiseware adding noise and this is result adding Full ( weaker noise).
Comments welcome.
Ian Mc

[Lana Hays]

Ian
I'm not familiar with Noiseware. It would be helpful on this one if you posted some of the techs.....especially the amount of cropping if any. Also I'd be interested in seeing a "before" to this image to see how much this has helped. It looks like you have some pretty harsh light. There is also a "halo" around parts of the bird.....I assume from sharpening.

[Ian McHenry]

Thanks Lana
Here is original.
Pentax K10D with Tamron 70-300 @ 300mm handheld.
400 ISO 1/2000 @ F5.6. No EV adj. Multi segment metered.
Ian Mc

[Dave Phillips]

beautiful heron Ian, never seen one like this before.
IMO, the first one looks overprocessed.

the original shows some nice detail, just underexposed. I played and set a white and shadow point in curves, brightened the eye, removed some noise only in bg, sharpened bird a bit.. BG is a bit busy

would like to see more of this species in habitat if possible

[Lana Hays]

Ian
I really like what Dave has done with this one. Amazing what a little PS magic can do.

[Ian McHenry]

I agree Lana.
Thanks Dave I am inclined to overcook things.
Your's is a really nice edit.
Ian Mc