Great Kiskadee

Taken yesterday in RGV, TX.



Nikon D610
1/250 sec. at f / 8.0, ISO 1000, 240 mm.

All C & C greatly appreciated.
Just trying to improve.

Thanks in advance for looking

C M

My favorite bird when I'm down in Texas!

My one suggestion is the bird looks a little dark. I'd increase the exposure on that,
but leave the background untouched, this way the bird will really stand out.

Its hard to tell cause it is kinda dark, but maybe a little sharpening on the Kiskadee
also.

Doug

Doug

Took your advice.



Thanks for the help

C M

Yes, nice! The crop is tight on the left and bottom.

Is this a crop? Or handheld? I'd expect it could be just a little sharper. But maybe some softening might have occurred in processing, too.

Very nice. The repost is a big improvement. It makes the bird standout more. It does seem a little on the soft side did you sharpen at all?

Yes, I sharpen three difference times. First in LR5, next with Sharpener Pro 3 (1 & 2), and last with PS CS6.

nice colorful bird and a good pose. tail is too close to the corner of the frame. Application of strong noise reduction has annihilated feather details giving the image an unnatural soft look (the watercolor effect). It needs careful reprocessing

TFS

I would be careful about too many sharpening applications. Sharpening is really just the introduction of artifacts to make things look sharper, and will sharpen noise too. You'll only get the best quality when the initial capture is low noise and with critical focus. (Exposing to the right and bringing down exposure in post will keep noise as low as possible, while bringing up exposure in post will bring up noise.)

It is generally best to use only the default amount of NR and sharpening in LR/ACR. A very clean (noise-free) file can sometimes be OK with a little more. There are several good NR plugins for PS (Neat Image and Nik Dfine are my favorites), then carefully sharpen the output file after resizing. PS's Smart Sharpen set to Lens Blur is very good, as are Focus Magic and Nik's Sharpener. These can often be used on the master file, but with very judicious application. Every image is a little different in what it needs and there are limits to what you can do to a soft or noisy capture.