Glossy Ibis Take-Off

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 1D4
500mm +1.4TC
Gitzo/Wimberley

ISO 800
1/5000 sec
f/5.6

Taken in Sarasota FL a couple weeks ago one of the times I went shooting with Marina. I added canvas to the top and right, and a little to the bottom. Some cloning of stuff in BG inc a couple out of focus birds.
Thanks for looking, all C& C most appreciated and welcome!

[Doug Brown]

The bird is expertly captured at the peak of the upstroke of the wings. Sharpness is good, and I love how nicely the iridescence of the plumage is brought out. There does appear to be some noise in the darks, and I sure do wish you had more room on the top, bottom, and left.

[arash_hazeghi]

super pose and peak-of-take off moment captured well. I also see noise in the feather but otherwise great

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Melissa, I love take off shots when one gets the timing right like this. Excellent wing position with a good leaning take off pose. Good to see the variety of colours these guys have, and they pop nicely from the lighter water BG. Noise mentioned, and since you have done a great job extending the canvas top and right, I agree with Doug to try some more left and bottom.

[Marina Scarr]

Love this take off pose at the peak, Melissa. I really like the composition here. I think having more space all around would work too, but it would be a totally different picture. The iridescent feathers are stunning. Noise already mentioned. You really need to give these guys a LOT of light to keep the noise out. Really glad you were able to capture this gorgeous bird so well.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I ran a bit more NR, hope this is an improvement as far as noise. I'm still undecided about adding more room (and also wondering if I would need to create some reflection for the ibis if I add below!).

[arash_hazeghi]

you have to increase the NR strength more. was this underexposed originally?

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Hey Melissa,
You definately captured those great colors yet with the price of noice to proccess them out more I am guessing. Still very nice. The 2nd round helped a little but not a big difference. geat take off pose

[Melissa Groo]

you have to increase the NR strength more. was this underexposed originally?

It sure was, Arash. I will give the NR another attempt tonight when I have time. Thanks for your thoughts.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Melissa, here is my version with a touch added, top, left and bottom. I also gave the NR a go. With regards to the reflection below, I dont feel it is necessary other than what has been created with the added canvas effect.

[Sachin Saraf]

Wow Melissa you really captured nice action here...Wonderful wing position Stu did great job with NR on wing and I liked some more room all around as done by Stu.

[Melissa Groo]

Wow, Stuart, great job! And I see now how the space around is an improvement. Thank you so much; I really appreciate your taking the time to rework and improve this. I will try the same on the original at home.

[Conrad Tan]

Nice take off shot!

[gail bisson]

Hi Melissa,
This is one of those shots that is almost perfect! The take off pose, the iridescence, the HA, the clean BG etc etc. If only you had not underexposed in camera thus causing the noise issue. Did you try processing the image first in DPP? Arash says that this is the best way to deal with noise and then you ship out to CS5. ( I bought his guide to NR for EOS camera.) Set chrominance NR to 8 luminance to 0 and see if it helps the noise issue.
This shot is definitely worth working on,
Gail
I prefer the version with more room all around and do not think the reflection is an issue on the bottom with added canvas

[Melissa Groo]

Hi Melissa,
This is one of those shots that is almost perfect! The take off pose, the iridescence, the HA, the clean BG etc etc. If only you had not underexposed in camera thus causing the noise issue. Did you try processing the image first in DPP? Arash says that this is the best way to deal with noise and then you ship out to CS5. ( I bought his guide to NR for EOS camera.) Set chrominance NR to 8 luminance to 0 and see if it helps the noise issue.
This shot is definitely worth working on,
Gail
I prefer the version with more room all around and do not think the reflection is an issue on the bottom with added canvas

Thanks a lot Gail, very helpful. I did buy Arash's guide sometime ago, and used the steps on a couple images and it proved extremely effective; I was impressed. I am going to go back to that and rework this when I have time which probably won't be till tomorrow. I typically bring my pics into LR3 and then into CS5, and don't see any easy way to relate the DPP to the Lightroom, which is one reason I haven't done that yet. How do you integrate the two, as I see you use LR too?

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks a lot Gail, very helpful. I did buy Arash's guide sometime ago, and used the steps on a couple images and it proved extremely effective; I was impressed. I am going to go back to that and rework this when I have time which probably won't be till tomorrow. I typically bring my pics into LR3 and then into CS5, and don't see any easy way to relate the DPP to the Lightroom, which is one reason I haven't done that yet. How do you integrate the two, as I see you use LR too?

Hey Melissa,
you either have to use DPP or lightroom (you can only use one RAW convertor at a time) unfortunately you cannot integrate two RAW convertors in your workflow.

[Arno Ellmer]

I'm a late comer to this post! What a great capture,Melissa ! Following the pp input above gives this image a special rating.

[gail bisson]

Hi Melissa,
You can get the DPP image into LR3 as a TIFF (convert in DPP to TIFF and your changes are saved on TIFF) but not as a RAW with your changes. But you have already done your conversion in DPP so taking the TIFF into LR3 is a wasted step. Having said this I put the TIFF in LR3 for cataloging purposes,
Gail

[Dan Brown]

Hi Melissa,
You can get the DPP image into LR3 as a TIFF (convert in DPP to TIFF and your changes are saved on TIFF) but not as a RAW with your changes. But you have already done your conversion in DPP so taking the TIFF into LR3 is a wasted step. Having said this I put the TIFF in LR3 for cataloging purposes,
Gail

You can also open your tiff in ACR for more non-destructive adjustments if you want. I think you have to set ACR preferences to open the tiff.

[Melissa Groo]

Thank you Dan and Gail. Gail, I do take that extra step to put it into LR, as I need it there for cataloguing. Wish there was a way to automate it.
Went back to my original today and reworked it from the ground up. Would be interested particularly to hear from Arash if he thinks the noise is finally gone! I went into your NR guide and followed one of the procedures, hope I did it the right way. Sometimes I don't trust my eyes when it comes to noise.
Thanks again to all.

[arash_hazeghi]

hey Melissa, the last version still shows noise. My guess is your monitor is set too dim or just doesn't have enough gamut so you are not seeing the noise. If you want email me the full size JPEG or CR2 and I'll fix it for you

best

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the take-off pose, BG and wing position. Look forward to the repost by Arash.

[arash_hazeghi]

here is a quick and dirty try, also adjusted contrast a bit I just grabbed the bird from the orig and put it on Melissa's image because I didn't want to touch the BG or composition, there might be a slight halo because of that.

[Frank Schauf]

Just fantastic, nice take off.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks to all for the comments. Arash, you're right, the issue was mainly that my monitor was set too dim, have fixed that. Thanks a bunch for your repost, it looks great!