Rufous

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

Here is a little more context than the previous images which were just flight shots without any flowers or perch.

Specific Feedback Requested:

ISO 1600, 400+1.4 X, F6 .3, 2000th, harsh early afternoon sun tamed with a warming filter, 20% of full frame

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

I did notice some banding noise especially in the upper right corner. That means it’s overprocessed. The banding noise is not present on the tiff image but gets translated to the JPEG for some reason. Maybe someone can tell me why. I had tried to smooth out some noise that wasn’t dealt with by Topaz. I attenuated the noise with a blur filter.
Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites)
not a composite

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Rufus--2-copy
Rufus--2-copy2000×1438 269 KB

minimal processing but I still see the banding in the jpeg. sRBC

rufous-2-c-copy
rufous-2-c-copy2000×1337 264 KB

1 Like
2

@David_Schoen I think this is a very pleasing frame. The hummer pose on the perch is very nice and the background is nice.

The banding is certainly visible in the jpeg. Most likely the TIFF is a 16 bit image and the jpeg is certainly an 8 bit image because that’s all it will support. That difference can easily cause banding because there just are enough colors available in an 8 bit image to handle the fine transitions in color in the background.

3

Very sweet, David. Nice pose and perch with excellent processing on the hummingbird.

4

Yes, very lovely capture with wonderful light and a lovely BG. @Keith_Bauer has explained the banding. You can minimize it by doing all the tonal adjustments in LR/ACR, where you have the most overhead. Even if you go to PS in 16 bits, there will be a narrower range of tones and any darkening or lightening there will be more prone to banding than it would have been in the raw file. Any subtle tonal transition is subject to it, but it seems to be more here than I would expect.

5

Hi David
Your question on banding sent me into the internet and cam up with the copt by Denis Protopopov. It is rather long to I am moving it to the discussion page.
You may be on to something with the reduced processing. By the way the Hummingbird look very nice and I like the framing.
Peter