Global tonal corrections in LR and denoise. Into PS to “sharpen” the face. The shot immediately after (at 20 fps) was sharper on the area around the eye, as there was a bit of motion blur in this one, so that area was replaced. Contrast lowered around the top branch and some minor border patrol.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Vision and Purpose:
Conceptual:
Emotional Impact and Mood:
Composition:
Balance and Visual Weight:
Depth and Dimension:
Color:
Lighting:
Processing:
Technical:
Diane: Oh my what a shot! Perfect timing to have the berry in mid-air/gulp. Placement in the frame is just about perfect and I like that his feathers are tangled up a bit in the branch. The BG and environment aren’t bad either. Superbly crafted image. >=))>
PS: What did you use for noise reduction. I suspect there was some at ISO 8000
Thanks, @Bill_Fach! I’m extra delighted to catch a Robin with a toss as they usually just gulp the berries straight down. (Probably because they are bigger, and the smaller Waxwings have to get the berry in the back of their mouth to shove it down with the back of their tongue. I have a lot of shots that make me want to gag.)
There was even more noise than there might have been as the capture was a stop underexposed. With the high-ISO equivalence of sensors these days, it’s about the same whether I go to a higher ISO or increase exposure in the raw converter, so rather than miss a shot I’ll bump exposure later.
I used the NR in Lightroom, and it shows at the 50% default. Here are before and after screenshots at 100%. You can also see the slight softening around the eye that I “fixed” in the final version.
A very nice capture and they do wolf their berries down quickly. I found those lines where the open beak is somewhat distracting. My guess is that they are bristle like feathers that are very apparent against the light BG. My guess is that if they are part of the bird then I cannot justify editing them out. Looks pretty good as presented…Jim
Thanks, @David_Schoen, @Dennis_Plank, @Jim_Zablotny and @Cathy_Proenza! David, clear skies here will limit me for a couple pf days, but maybe some thin high clouds in a couple of days. They have almost cleaned off the tree so I’m out of luck soon. Jim, that’s some sort of whiskers on the bird, but not sure why they show behind it and not apparent in front. Cathy, I hadn’t noticed that branch – it is a bit odd with some sort of softening on the dead leaf. Easy to prune – I’ll do a RP in a minute – thanks for the suggestion!
And in fixing it I noticed an odd shape near the tip of the leaf below the bird’s feet. I thought it was an errant brush stroke but it is in all the raw files in the burst. Looked artificial though so I removed it.
I actually find the two branches that are out of focus just above the back and the top of the back to be kind of distracting. I think the image would be cleaner if those had been cloned away of course you would also have to get the white blob on the leaf*
This is really a good image though. The set up with the berries and the bird with the open beak are quite entertaining..
And you didn’t exceptional job on the noise reduction, considering how high of an iso you used.
@David_Schoen, I agree, but removing it completely felt like taking too much liberty and relying on the AI stuff too much. But now that youi have me thinking about it, I could crop down a bit and clean up with more conventional tools, then add canvas with content-aware fill. Hmmm… I’ll have a look and see that I can come up with. Thanks for the nudge!
I managed to accomplish a cleanup that I like without going too far out of my comfort zone. But far enough for a lot of disclosure footnotes. I was able to simplify the UL area with some further low-opacity cloning – including removing the diagonal branch coming out of the back. For the UR I resorted to AI fill. I first lowered contrast on the leaf in the LR corner and it was successful enough, but I decided to try AI removal and it worked well so I left it – on a top layer that I can turn off if desired. The result posted above. It is an improvement. I guess it’s fair enough to “simplify” BGs if disclosed.
I do think the newest version is a nice change, Diane. We all have our own comfort zones for AI. I know a guy who does mostly portraits and he’s been using it in place of studio backgrounds the last couple of years. In that case, I don’t see a whole lot of difference in the two approaches.
Great moment captured Diane at just the right moment. Nice job on the rework - works for my taste. A beautiful image too with the berries and spent leaves.
@Dennis_Plank and @Allen_Sparks – big thanks for the EP – such a nice surprise! I ent back and got a few more tosses today but nothing amazing. There are still a few berries so I may have a couple more tries. I think the lingering thule fog has kept traffic down. (It has certainly kept my ISO up…)
