In the first image I posted of this Peregrine in flight, iso-was 1250 because it was in the sun. This is the next consecutive image at iso-2500 because of the background.
This is the most extreme enlargement. The whites are a little blown and there is some loss of detail in some of the darker plumage. Wish I was a lot closer for this one.
Several people wanted to see this particular crop with the snag on the left side so I posted it.
I don’t think any of these images are web posting quality but I wanted to see what people thought of what software enhancements can do in this situation.
I have posted several Peregrine Falcon images over the past week or so and here are some more. I’ve also had some discussion about using Topaz workflows to improve image quality when the subject is very small in the frame. Yes I have an advantage in 61 megapixels with my A7r4 but I’m not able to get what I would had the subject been considerably closer.
Description: these are three different images using DxO Photo Lab 4.1, refined in Light Room and then Photoshop. Noise reduction is applied with Topaz De Noise AI, the image is enlarged two times with Topaz Gigapixel AI, and then converted to JPEG for the web using TK sharpening action at 1%. None of these are composites and there is no cloning.
Specific Feedback Requested: yes image quality is affected without a doubt but based on the processing workflow above, what are your honest opinions?
Pertinent technical details or techniques: first image in flight is iso-2500, second image with Peregrine making eye contact is iso-1000, third image iso-1000. All of the images are taken with 400+ 2X handheld, f5.6 in all of the images, in-flight and larger crop with left-hand snag at 2500th,
bird with eye contact at 1600th. All A7r4. Largest crop is falcon with eye contact, 2.4 megapixels out of 61 megapixels or 4% of full frame.
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I love that snag!! (Wish for just a bit more sky at the top – easy to add.) If you could ever get a wingspread pose on it, that would be wonderful, to make the bird a bit more prominent in the frame and still be able to have the entire snag. (I would consider camping there…)
The IQ is always frustrating for large crops but the subjects are so interesting it can be forgiven, in my book. There is some CA which the software should be able to deal with.
In the second, have you been able to go further to reduce Highlights and bring up Shadows? (I don’t know your software but would think it’s the equivalent of LR/ACR.) You might compare doing the extreme tonal work both before and after NR – i.e. in the raw converter vs. waiting till into PS and after NR. I’m still debating which is better or if they are the same.
I’m curious what advantage you find in using DxO and then going to LR? I don’t know the DxO software and am curious to find what it might offer that LR doesn’t.
The flight shot looks pretty good for image quality. The best of the three I would say. The second image really suffers from the enlarging. Perhaps if was smaller, less cropped, it would be better. The snag shot looks vg for iq and i also would like a bit more room at top.
I am not sure what more you can do. Can you go back to back on teleconverters and get more reach? I don’t think the ISO increase would hurt you.
I think for the distance these were shot at, they’re fine images, David. Even the most cropped one shows quite a bit of plumage detail. I’ve never really tried mixing too many software packages in processing to see what I can get out of them, so I can’t really comment on that. I do like the image with the entire snag (especially if you add that bit of canvas to the top). That would be my preference-just let it be a bird in environment image and don’t worry about trying to get minute detail that no one but your fellow pixel peepers cares about.
Hi David
What did they in Jaws, we need a bigger boat. Only in the movies. your ability to track a Peregrine in flight with a 800mm lens is quite amazing. All three shots were interesting and displayed as 12 by 8 & 10 by 8 on my 21" Mac, with reasonable quality. As for the process, I only had use of Topaz DeNoise AI & Gigapixel as a trial, I use Lightroom for a number of years, but never had Photoshop.
I did try this routine use DxO PhotoLab 3 and Gigapixel and compared it to DeNoise Ai and Gigapixel.
I found leaving DxO as a Tiff, produce a cleaner photo then a raw file from Denoise. Max bump up of 1.5 times.
DxO 4 has much better image control and the DeepPrime denoise is much better then the noise reduction in DxO 3.
Nice work
Peter
