Save the western tanager!

Hello NPN,

I didn’t have the right lens (was using a 70-200mm at the time) on me when he flew down from the canopy to say hello! The tanager was quite a ways away, and is quite small in the frame, is there anything I can do to rescue this picture? I tried running it through gigapixel, and I’m wondering if it’s as good as it’s going to get.

Raw File

_DSC6047.NEF (34.7 MB)

You may only download this file to demonstrate how you would process the image. The file is Copyright of the photographer, and you must delete the raw file when you are done. Please post a jpg of what you created, explain what you did, and why you did it.

My Edit

Looks like there have been no suggestions yet Zach. I have had a go with a variety of processes using Lightroom & Topaz Photo AI. They both have Denoise & Sharpen functions and Photo AI also allows for pixel enlargement. This one isn’t easy and I don’t think that I have actually improved the image. Your edit may be as good as it can get (but maybe try to remove the branch above the head)


This one was Lightroom denoise and Lightroom Generative AI to take out the branch.

Hey Ryan, thanks for the try!

Next time I go out west I’ll try my luck at another photo.