Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites)
I love simple portraits like this, and the Loon is a great subject – a very nice pose in a very nice setting, with the ripples and reflection adding supporting elements. I don’t see noise at the size here, but you said you “tried” to reduce it – if you are having some issues with it, I find Topaz DeNoise is amazing. I’m curious about your processing for the tonal range and wonder if more detail could be brought into both the lights and darks.
Thank you Diane. I am using Photoshop I use two types Adjustments and Shadows and Highlights for lights and darks.
I thought Photoshop had some good noise filters, I use Smart Sharpening with the ability to reduce noise.
Are you shooting in raw? You’ll get the best highlight and shadow detail with the Highlights and Shadows sliders in Camera Raw . Balance other sliders with them as needed – then go to PS. I would remove noise before any sharpening. The Topaz DeNoise PS plugin is far better than anything in PS or LR/ACR, and does some very good but subtle sharpening. If a file isn’t sharp to start with, not much can be done. But Smart Sharpen set to remove lens blur is good if not pushed too far.
Hi Norma, I just love loons and enjoy seeing them when in the ADKs, at least once a year. This is a very nice portrait and you caught him in a great pose, showing forward movement and an interesting reflection too; I’m trying to reconcile the different shapes in the water with his head, but it must be the little waves playing tricks, ha ha. The light was very even which helped to show off his striking color patterns. And, of course, that red eye nails it. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Jim, yes I know sometimes the water is unpredictable and I do see those waves but I didn’t want to play with it too much. My concern was a little lack of detail in the white chest of the loon near the water.
Norma, Loons are always a treat and you caught this one well. I think the white in it’s chest looks fine (btw, Ansel Adams almost always had both total black and pure white in his final images.). However, the blacks seem a bit grey and the reddishness around it’s eye have me thinking that you’ve burned in this area to get the eye to show better. Noise reduction is best done on the raw file (I find the noise reduction in Lightroom’s raw processing to work fine even at very high iso…you just have to adjust the amounts. It’s my understanding that the noise reduction in Photoshop is the same as in LR, with a slightly different interface.) The noise looks fine here.
No use of burning tool to the eye, the light was behind me and when he turned I got it. I was aware of the red eye being one of the center points of the loon and knew how important the image was with it. I did sharpen the image and reduced noise using the smart sharpen filter, maybe artifacts are from using that tool. Yes I agree with AA and true white true black zone system … etc Oh if I could master that using digital photography it is just a different animal. Still learning the accepted techniques for a good final digital image. Thank you Mark this really helps to know I may be using Photoshop to acquire my final image correctly.
I’ll have to offer another opinion, and certainly there are many ways to do things, and it all depends on the tools available. But I’m confused about the use of Smart Sharpen here – it is for sharpening – it’s not a primary noise reduction tool. You can reduce noise to some degree in ACR/LR or other raw converters, but I have never seen one that comes even close to using the Topaz DeNoise plugin in PS – as the first step after raw tonal adjustments. There have been huge improvements in recent versions, and use the Auto switch to let it analyze the image and suggest the settings. It’s the only Auto-anything I’ll use.
A good image starts in Adobe Camera Raw, if you are not a LR user. That’s where a raw image will open, but it is not PS – it is the raw converter that works with PS. It allows the maximum adjustment of tonal detail. The Shadows slider in ACR, balanced with the other tonal sliders, will bring out more detail in the dark browns and the eye, and the Highlights slider will do the same for highlights. The correspondingly-named sliders in PS predate raw files and are hampered by the tonal range that has been cemented into the file when it was opened. The raw file is where the tonal work should be done then open the image in PS.
Then use the Topaz DeNoise plug-in first thing. It’s by far the best NR software I’ve ever seen, and can compensate amazingly for noise being brought out in a raw file by lightening the dark areas.
If you go back and start over in that manner with this image I think you’ll see a subtle but very nice improvement.
that is why I am here to lear all this stuff although I have some knowledge it is always great to hear what other are doing and using - I will get the filter Topaz Deoise plug-in as it was suggested by several, thank you Diane
