Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
My first attempt editing in PS, content aware - removing a distracting branch. Other adjustments and masking done in LRC. Looking for feedback on editing
Technical Details
Nikon Z6ii
Nikkor Z100-400 with 1.4 TC
Tripod with gimbal
470mm
1/1250 f8 ISO 320
On the brink of adulthood I’d say. What a great encounter & thanks for posting. Colors and exposure look good; not oversaturated or too bright or dark. Two things come to mind in the areas you’re looking for comment - first, it seems over sharpened to me. There are artifacts and halos on a lot of edges and are especially noticeable on the bird’s head, but also in the branches against the sky. The second is the crop. It feels a tad awkward. Mostly it’s because the bird is looking into the heavy branch and if you put more branch there, the more it has to fight for dominance in the frame. You could reduce the “heaviness” of the branch by lightening it just a bit and maybe reducing the saturation. If the darn bird was just looking to the right it would solve this. Darn birds, just won’t listen!
Thanks Kristen. I am learning about where to stop with sharpening. I will take the RAW photo back into LRC and perhaps Topaz and resubmit. I agree that the crop is not good, but I didn’t have much choice because of the direction the bird is looking.
A very nice find! It is a bit of an awkward situation for composing a crop. You don’t say how much of a crop it is, but I long to see the tip of the top branch. I like that the branch in front of the bird is tonally separated by being lighter.
Your sensor and lens should allow a cleaner job, though, and the capture should have been sharp with the rig listed. It looks like both NR and sharpening have gone too far. Sharpening can often be a blunt instrument. What are you using for processing, and what steps – especially the NR and sharpening part??
Hi Daniel, a regal bird with a nice pose even given the direction being faced. I agree with the comments above concerning cropping (i.e. include the top of the branch) and post processing. I’m guessing this is also a big crop based on image quality. Knowing what you did in post would help to make suggestions.
At the normal viewing size, detail throughout the image with everything being in focus which really helps in this kind of shot. Zooming in all the way shows some definite image quality issues as if the focus were on the branch in front of the bird (very easy to have happen) and you applied one of the AI sharpening tools to try to fix it. Those can get awfully heavy handed if you’re not really careful.
You mentioned removing a branch-was it across the bird’s neck? That are looks pretty rough when I zoom all the way in. The LRC looks fine to me.
The composition feels a little left heavy to me. You might want to try a vertical which would allow you to get rid of more of the empty sky on the right. I don’t know if you have the tip of that tuft at the top in this or perhaps another frame, but if you do you could add it in and put a bit more canvas on the top. This would help provide the illusion that you were more on a level with the eagle-something that’s very difficult with birds like this.
Thanks for the advice. I will be cleaning the sensor and lens filter before every shoot from now on. I use Topaz AI for sharpening and NR - am just getting used to the sliders and other settings.
Keeping the lens clean is always a good idea, but the only thing that would affect overall IQ is stuff on the front of the lens I think your issue here is just not the best processing.
Stuff on the back of the lens will look like a very diffuse and faint sensor spot and will only show at small apertures. Even spots on the sensor itself will rarely show wide open.
I would be cautious about cleaning the sensor unless it really needs it, and it’s easy to see when it does. Check the article on my web site home page: www.dianedmiller.com.
