Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I love red wing black birds. I think it might be my spirit animal. Mostly black, a splash of red.
Specific Feedback
This was taken early in the morning and my ISO was really high. I think LR Denoise did a fantastic job, but please let me know if it’s not good.
I also would like to know if the bit of lightening in the background behind the bird was too much.
Also please let me know if this is just boring…you know, bird on a stick…
Technical Details
Nikon Z8 + 180-600, shot in DX crop mode
600mm, f6.3, 1/600, ISO12,800
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Hi Julie
It’s not a bird on at stick, it’a much better than that. The framing and fill light work will, but LR Dnoise didn’t do good job on the Red-wing Black bird head and eye. Did you ever look at DXO for cleaning up high ISO’S.
Peter
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Yeah, I wasn’t too sure about the Denoise on the black of the bird itself.
I dont’ have dxo, I had a trial but I didn’t like it. (Got it to try for astro and it left really bad artifacts…)
I do have Topaz, which I don’t love either but maybe I’ll give it a go and see if I can clean up my spirit animal.
I really like the display pose of the Redwinged Blackbird, Julie, and the perch works for me. I do see a bit of noise in the blackbird, but I don’t find it particularly bad. What does bother me is the blue color cast on the perch and the bird. Early morning light can cause that king of problem but just hitting your WB eyedropper in LR on a neutral point like the gray branches or black areas of the bird should tame it.
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Thank you! Good advice about the WB on the branch. I fixed it.
As well as re-processing using Topaz, which, you know, is a trade off.
I reduced more noise but I’m not sure it’s “better.” Although it’s a little better. I also went with a more mellow approach to the processing which helped, too.
Thank you @Dennis_Plank and @Peter_Morrissey for your thoughts on this image!
I like the singing pose, Julie, showing the epaulets and tail feathers. The perch is interesting and as Peter said, more than a BOAS. I would like a little more detail in the head. I don’t know about noise reduction in astrophotography, but I’ve looked at DeNoise, Topaz, and DxO pure raw for my bird photography and DxO was the clear winner.
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Very artistic presentation and it offers some early Spring color. For this type of photo, I tend to do basic adjustments to bring up the shadows and reduce the highlights slightly. Then apply NR which will give better control over the noise in the shadows. Also, shoot in fx mode–this conserves pixels and it is best to crop after your preliminary edits…Jim
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Very good advice, thank you so much!
The perch, clean BG and cape-like shape of the wings makes this a very interesting image. I like the composition and the vignette.
You say you reduced the blue but I don’t know if you replaced the OP. The blue is intriguing but a comparison with some correction would be interesting. It’s always good to add a re-post next to the OP for comparison. Place it above if you feel it’s an improvement – otherwise below. The top one is what will show in the thumbnails and be considered for EPs.
There is some lack of detail on the darker tones of the bird and also in the red epaulets. That could be partly due to the blue color cast and partly due to the large crop – not enough pixels on the subject. That might be improved by going back to the raw file, making careful tonal and color tweaks then looking at denoise options, either in LR or preferably in PS. Personally, I find Topaz Denoise is superior, with several options that can be controlled. It’s not a push-button solution, but that gives it flexibility and power. I do it first thing into PS. Best results are almost always with careful comparison at 100% of the Low Light and Severe Noise options, with the default Model Preferences checked in most cases.
A very lovely image worth some more work!!
The only acceptable option at this time to denoise astro images is averaging maybe 10-15 exposures with Starry Sky Stacker or Sequator. The regular NR programs will trash the image.
Yes, I definitely do stacking for astro! After LR updated the denoise, I tried a couple single images just for fun. I had a one off high ISO image that I didn’t stack because I didn’t think it was worth the effort, but I was just giving it a shot with different denoise applications to see if it could work. And they were all a mess but Dxo was the worst. Oddly, I had another image that LR denoise did a great job on, so it seems inconsistent, definitely not something I wish to rely on.
I’ve been away from my computer so I didn’t repost the re-do of this image, but also I agreed with the critiques that there wasn’t enough detail in the head, and I’m not sure it was recoverable. I think the epaulets/upper wings are actually just slightly blurry from movement, so there’s no feather detail there, either.
Long story short, I decided that it wasn’t worth the repost because I think the technique isn’t good enough…
Fair enough!! I had a look at your web site and am very impressed! I hope you will also post some things in Nightscape here. Older work is fine – anything to elicit comments, ideas, general interest and any sort of envy!
I would say you are well beyond an intermediate and I’m very happy to see your work here. I’m quite sure being a serious musician informs serious photography, and I’m seeing that in your work.
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My goodness @Diane_Miller thank you for your kind words!
I didn’t do any astro last summer at all, I just didn’t plan anything and the timing didnt’ work. I missed it, can’t wait to do some this summer if I can…
Thank you again for your support!
