Reprocessed Today. This is a Yellow Warbler.
Specific Feedback Requested
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
iso 1600, 400 plus 1,4X, f6.3, 2000th, 70% full frame, Sony A1
1 Like
A cute catch! For my taste (YMMV) I’d take some off the bottom and both sides to give more prominence to the bird. The BG is nicely soft but not enough is “happening” in it to make me want to explore it, except for the area just behind the bird.
There is a strange halo above the bird and on the UL edge of the rock. Looks like the results I’ve had trying to master the new selections in LR…
And absolutely right on critique Diane. I liked the image because of the pose which was a one chance occurrence. Yes I did use the new selections tool in Photoshop which resulted in the halo. I still need to work on those skills. The original background had too many black areas and were unusually shaped so I just got rid of them. I suppose I could’ve put some texture in the background to make it more interesting.
Here’s one with the background replaced. The background image was shot at the same time the original image was taken. I used topaz mask AI with the contrast selection and masked the original background and replaced it. Does it look reasonable?
Thanks in advance for your comment.
I noticed some banding on this second image. I applied a slight Gaussian blur to the original background. The banding is not evident at all on the original JPEG but by the time it makes it to NPN, it picks up the banding. Any solutions to this problem that I have seen previously.
The selection for the bird looks better here, but there is still a funky area on the left side of the rock. I doubt I’ll find much use for the selections in LR, except for the most subtle adjustments where the imperfections of the edges don’t show. Selections in PS are easier to control because you can show the mask and zoom in and paint the edges as perfectly as you need. I haven’t used Topaz Mask in a long time – I should look at it again, but I found the versions of several years ago difficult to master.
I really liked the darker area behind the tail on the original BG. I’d be tempted to mask in that one area.
Difference in banding: could it be that the site here is compressing JPEGs enough to cause more banding?