The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I went down to Magee Marsh in Ohio during the May migration trek that these birds do.
The image description says “…your creative process and the emotions you aimed to capture.” Which as an amatuer I find quite funny, as I’m 100% focused on keeping the bird in the frame and hoping that he’s in focus! For this palm warbler, I got lucky, as he plopped right in front of me and actually sat still for more that two seconds!
Specific Feedback
I used gigapixel to blow it up after the crop, and to get rid of some noise. I then used some masks to mute some of the harsher background colors/light. I’m not sure what to do about the bright branch in the right corner of the image.
Was this an okay edit?
Technical Details
Nikon Z6
NIKKOR Z 180-600mm
shot at -
600mm
1/2500s
f/6.3
ISO 5000
Topaz Gigapixel AI / Lightroom
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Palms are pretty common at Magee and this one has some nice color. The head is slightly soft and your camera locked onto the back of the warbler. For the composition, you can crop some more from the right and you can remove the bright OOF stick which pulls the eye away from the bird. Other than that, a good first try at a very challenging bird…Jim
Welcome to NPN and the Avian forum, Zach. This is a very creditable first post for avian (I won’t go into how horrible my first one was). I think doing noise reduction and all other processing before going to Gigapixel AI will probably give better results. However you mentioned that it “plopped right in front of you” so I would think with a 600 mm you wouldn’t really need to use Gigapixel unless you wanted to print it large. It doesn’t take a whole lot of pixels to make something postable on the web. I export mine at 2048 pixels on the long edge and no one has whined about the size (when I first joined NPN I think 800 pixels was the maximum allowable!).
Jim mentioned the slight softness. I don’t know if your camera has bird eye AF. If it doesn’t then using a relatively small AF zone to focus on the face works well.
I think to subdue the bright stuff in the background, you’re going to have to go to an editing program like PhotoShop. LR is great for a lot of stuff but it has its limits.
Welcome again and I look forward to seeing a lot more of your work and reading your comments on other people’s efforts. This is a great site to learn on and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
Welcome! This is a really nice first post. Great colors, comp, and pose.
I agree with not needing Gig with this, and of trying to darken (left branch and lower bright flowers) and remove (right) bright branches. PS can help with almost anything, but it’s a learning curve, for sure.
I’ll add my welcome, too! This is the place to learn this silly and expensive hobby! But you are off to a good start – I really like the pose and environment here, and you have a lovely subject.
I just posted an Oriole with a similar pose where I took advantage of some focus-jumping or jittering (whatever it’s called) to composite a head that was in better focus. LR is an amazing tool and my basic one, but learning Photoshop is so worth it for things like cloning out that bright branch. But LR will let you do a local adjustment to darken the bright stuff at the bottom edge.
I used Generative Fill here to retail some believable detail – scary, huh?! Then used a large soft-edged brush to paint a quick mask and used its selection to brighten the bird with Curves.
Then I would consider cropping from the sides (one or the other) to decenter the bird. I often crop to 10% of the full frame and have never needed Gigapixel. When you start messing with pixels with something like that and sharpening, sooner rather than later you will run into limitations. There is no substitute for getting it right in capture.
