Very nice composition and capture of this Northern Harrier, who can be somewhat elusive to photograph. They always seem to be moving quickly above the grass and ground, making focus difficult. Not sure what you were shooting with, yet it definitely picked up on the bird.
With high ISO and the technology today, it is amazing how one can bring out the sharpness in an image to share. Probably would not print very well, as there is still quite a bit of noise when looking at full size. Nice capture though.
Nice job getting an action image under those conditions, Karl. I do see the noise mentioned by Harvey, but it doesn’t bother me much. You caught an excellent take-off pose. Very nicely done.
I agree that given the 10,000 iso, that this wont make a quality paper print - but should be OK on canvas
Harvey - i actually export from LR as a 1400 x 1050 jpg - the same as i do for my nphoto club - but perhaps I should create a NPN preset - and one of my images has been stolen from my website - someone else noticed it - i dont have the energy to run after such thieves
I like this image a lot. I have shot harriers before but it’s ALWAYS females, or juveniles that I see… never a male. Lucky dog! I like how the goodies in the foreground go with the color of its beautifully splayed tail. Well done. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Hi Karl. If you put your mouse on the thumbnail of this image, it shows as being 4827x3572 pixels and when I click on the larger image it blows up considerably outside my screen boundaries. You might want to look at your export settings again. I don’t know where you export, but I use LR and sometimes you can unclick the resize checkbox for a special case and forget to recheck it.
Very nice image!! I’ve rarely seen the male and never had a chance for capturing an image.
The technical issues:
Image size in pixels and file size in KB are different things. The size in KB reflects the JPEG compression. But compression doesn’t reduce the pixel size. I have an export preset for NPN that resizes the image to 2000 x 2000 px (in the Image Sizing section) and in the File Settings section, a setting that constrains the JPEG compression to 1.5 MB.
At the large pixel size you have, and with the very large compression to give such a small file size, there will be compromises and artifacts beyond your control.
I don’t know if it is due to the compression, but there is a lot of leftover(?) noise that is oddly distributed, especially in the grasses. Some NR programs do that. Topaz Denoise used in PS (the first thing, before any cloning that would affect pixels), has several algorithms. Try each in turn, scanning around the image at 100% to see which one works best. It’s usually Low Light or Severe Noise, with the toggle for Model Preferences turned on. But denosie in LR has been good – maybe it was the extra sharpening step? If you have used denoise in LR you may not get a good result by using a different denoise later in PS.
Very nice image that is worth a careful look and some sort of redo.
Great image Karl. You’ve captured the wing and head position of this bird just right. The lower third works well to frame the upper two thirds of the image including the bird. Very sharp and detailed too.
Karl, this is a really fine image, despite the technical issues. Excellent pose, subject, and environment. It’s worth more work, and Diane/Dennis have good suggestions. Looking forward toa re-post, if you agree and have time.
I’ve never figured out how much enlargement is occurring at the maximum view(but probably more than 100%), but at a normal view, this looks fine to me. Good detail and pose and I like the environmental aspect of the image.
1 NR - this time raw image opened using DxO Raw 2 and then in LR - where I felt it needed DeNoise too
Nothing special bout processing - the image is a bit brighter - hope this comes out OK to you
2 - LR export for NPN - I set it to 2000 x 2000 with 1500 KB as the limit - this is actually a larger file imo - I usually export at 1500 x 1050 with 800KB as the limit ( my club requirements }
Looks like you fixed the noise issues here – or else it was the compression. I prefer the slightly duskier OP but that’s certainly your choice. Wonderful capture!
I think critiquing can often spot problems by being able to zoom in on a larger file. Interestingly, I’ve noticed when a new version is put in the original window, the zoom is limited somehow – to the size of the smaller one?? I’ve been meaning to ask David about it but never got around to it. Nothing critical, just wondered about it.
Your repost did a much better job on the noise, Karl. Like Diane, I find myself liking the darker background of the original post-more of that late evening look.
Hi Karl. The size looks fine to me. That should work well. I used to use 1500 pixels for NPN, but my camera club likes 2048, so I finally switched my NPN export to match.
Hi Karl, I’m late to the party here so I’ll just say a fine catch of this elusive bird. Love the wing position, head turn, and overall environment of this image.
