I captured this image at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.
Nikon D7000
Nikon 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 VR AF-S ED, Handheld
1/500 F/8 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 250 Auto WB, Image captured at 300mm (450mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2021 and Topaz Sharpen AI
Cropped for composition and presentation
P.S. The shutter speed is low, I was photographing a perched bird and was surprised by this spoonbill landing. Didn't have time to change anything, pretty much a grab shot. This was a long time ago, now I know better and always keep my shutter speed as high as possible.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Joe, neat landing pose. A good candidate for the theme this month.
The translucency in the wings and tail feathers is pretty. A bit of wing blur can actually present artistically as well and I like a little in a frame like this once in a while. But a bit more shutter speed would probably have helped get a little sharper in the head/eye area too.
Would be nice to have a little more detail in the talons if you could eek some out.
Thanks Brian and David for viewing and commenting. Yesterday Topaz Sharpen AI had a update. I thought it might help this image. Here is a post using the updated Topaz Sharpen AI.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Hi Joe, was this under exposed, there is a lot of colour noise within the body? Sadly no amount of sharpening would help here Joe and I think the AI has amplified the noise which in turn amplified the softness.
Can't do too much with all that is 'baked in' to the file as I bet you sharpened before cropping, but even trying to reduce the colour noise, get a cleaner backdrop, adding a Blended channel H/T to get some more tonal range, then using PS to add a bit of sharpening (the best software for sharpening) which has added a bit more to the halos, it's not ideal, but you can see I think that you can get more from your raw.
A few frames prior to the wing overlapping the perch would be great.
TFS
Steve
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Joe, was this under exposed, there is a lot of colour noise within the body? Sadly no amount of sharpening would help here Joe and I think the AI has amplified the noise which in turn amplified the softness.
Can't do too much with all that is 'baked in' to the file as I bet you sharpened before cropping, but even trying to reduce the colour noise, get a cleaner backdrop, adding a Blended channel H/T to get some more tonal range, then using PS to add a bit of sharpening (the best software for sharpening) which has added a bit more to the halos, it's not ideal, but you can see I think that you can get more from your raw.
A few frames prior to the wing overlapping the perch would be great.
TFS
Steve
Hi Steve, yup, quite underexposed... dark gloomy day, and at the time the photographer didn't know enough to bias the camera for the light. Also this was captured with basically a kit lens, the cheap 70-300mm. Your skill shines in this edit and only using the jpeg. Thanks for taking a crack at it.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
Hi Joe, didn’t see that this was one from the early days, you have come a long way since then, so it surprise me when I saw the post, but all is now explained. Fingers crossed you can get some more in the coming months.
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
I remember a similar image from you way back when - the scene is familiar, so your explanation answers that! I have to say that I am liking the motion in the wings. I just wish the rest was "crisper", but a fun image and sometimes neat to go back in time and look at what we captured some time ago.