I took advantage of the “nice” weather yesterday to run down to Ridgefield NWR again. Despite the shutdown, the refuges are open for any area that doesn’t require staff presence and it looked like the volunteer crew was even keeping the toilets stocked. Plus and minus for photography was that the morning fog turned into all-day fog in that little hole with just a touch of lightening every now and then. It made for some nice moody shots, but when trying to pull detail out of a bird, it caused difficulties. This hawk was just finishing up a meal when I came up to it and spent quite a bit of time on the ground before it decided to leave, so I got a ton of shots at no more than 20-30 feet, but the fog still interfered.
In processing this, I wanted to bring out the detail in the bird, but I’m not sure how well it works with the background at this point. I used some dehaze in LR before importing into PS then used levels adjustments on the hawk to dehaze it a bit more.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Hows the detail? Any tricks for handling this situation that you’ve found?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Does the bird still work with the background?
Any pertinent technical details:
7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 421 mm, beanbag on car window, f/8, 1/800, iso 1250, manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. I experimented with both Topaz AI Clear and Neat Image for noise reduction. With the fog, AI Clear worked significantly better at retaining detail in the bird (I know many people say you shouldn’t use noise reduction on the subject, but I usually do with no ill effects). Taken yesterday at 1:14 pm. By the way, the place was mobbed.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Dennis,
We have a lot of fog in Valdez because we’re right on the coast so I’ve had to deal with it quite a bit. I downloaded your image and did the following:
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In Topaz Clarity, I raised the black levels, toned down the highlight levels & added some micro-contrast to bring back the tiny details.
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Then I simply brightened the whole image and added overall contrast.
Saving a jpeg of a jpeg hurts the image but it should give you an idea of what is possible. It would look much better if done to the original full size image.
The dew on the grass is a nice bonus, btw!
Thanks, Gary. I’ll have to look at the Topaz Clarity function. I haven’t used that one. While we don’t live on the coast we are in a fog pocket, so I deal with it frequently.
That second edit looks a bit overcooked, I liked the original more in terms of contrast and colors. However, I think the head of the bird in the original could use more contrast. The rest of it feels fine to me.
My main feedback is unfortunately not something that can be changed in post-production, but I think that shooting from a lower angle would have benefited this image greatly. It would make it look less like “Human shooting down at bird from above”, and more like a you’re looking through the eyes of something else on the animal’s eye-level. I think it would also have helped a bit with background separation.
I have a question; is this image cropped at all? I see a tiny bit of grass closer to the camera in the foreground, which I like because it helps at more depth. If that was cropped out a bit, maybe introducing a little more foreground blurry grass (for lack of a better phrase) would help? But now that I look at it, I think the small amount you have there works quite well, it’s not overpowering but still adds that bit of depth.
Thanks, Kyle. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed out of the car at Ridgefield, so a lower angle wasn’t available without parking in the middle of the road and blocking everyone else. I agree though that a lower angle would have been nice.
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