Which is better quality image? I use my iPad Pro (12.9”) for photo processing in the field. Trying to determine which programs have the best quality algorithms for saving the quality of the image.
Two versions posted… First on was with maximum rendering from LR CC to Apple Photo to post, and second one is with maximum rendering from LR CC saved to CreativeCloud Drive.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Do you see any discernible differences is quality, color, clarity, etc.?
What would you recommend to do to improve the image… Final image from LR to Topaz Studio 2 “clarity”.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
NIkon D500, Nikon 200-500mm at 1/800 sec; F5.6, ISO 100 500mm.
Cropped and very distracting twigs tree removed from lower right corner.
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
Ej.jewett
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Hi EJ. I don’t see any perceptible difference between the two. The background is awesome? What is it? I am seeing some very heavy fringing along the back of the Caracara and some along the talons. That’s often caused by overprocessing and/or some chromatic aberration. You can usually eliminate the latter in LR pretty easily by using the lens correction feature. This also has the look of a pretty large crop which can cause some issues. The Caracara is showing quite a bit of noise and that can also come from a large crop and a bit too much contrast adjustment or attempting to sharpen a slightly out of focus image too much.
The composition is very nice and the way the birds position works with the pattern in the background is great.
In terms of the image quality between the two, I can’t say that I see much difference. The first post shows more contrast in the blue background. There is a significant halo around the birds back which leads me to believe the background has either been heavily processed or replaced. I’m guessing processed. On both, the bird is pretty soft with a look of noise reduction applied. Don’t know what processing was done in total. I’d really like to just see the original unaltered image to have more valid input.
Nice artistic photo/painterly approach. I like the pose and the perch. The background is interesting. For my taste I prefer a less blue saturation and it does have the look of very heavy processing as others have mentioned.
@David_Schoen & @Keith_Bauer & @Dennis_Plank -
Since you all answered my question and mostly had the same comments, I hope you don’t mind If I address them all together.
I was trying to see what the impact of the cloud algorithms on the photo quality. Since I travel with the iPad (not computer) I wanted to see if it was worth posting my work to NPN or other web based programs from it.
You all have answered that question. The quality seems to degrade sharply based on the crop level, and may not be worth posting from the iPad. I also wanted to see what other platforms saw when they see images posted this way. This photo was developed on my iMac and then transferred via synch to my LR CC on my iPad. Since I know of no way to directly place the photo from LR CC to NPN or IG - I tried both of these alternate methods described. Each seems to handle saturation and noise differently.
This photo was taken against the bright morning sky, cropped down 50% as you say - and the Caracara was at the top of a tree (12m high @ 20m away).
The background is a palm tree much further in the distance and the design is natural and no adjustments were made to the sky… Where you see the palm fronds a bit “off” in the lower left corner, that is the clone of another palm to cover the very distracting small branches.
So this photo posted to NPN looks “over processed” because it has been subject to algorithms by 3 different services… I basically just cropped the photo, used Topaz “AI Clear” and brightened the Caracara front it a bit since I was shooting into the bright sky. Not much else was done to the photo.
