Lovely nails! a case of too much cropping

Osprey about to land on top of a yacht mast.
5D4 600 f4 III HH
1/2000 f7.1 iso500
Manual

DPP4 sharpness 3
PS2020 cropped and tip of mast removed from the bottom.
No other processing.

A fine shot Colin, really well caught. I would suggest lower the highlights a little and just put a tiny Dodge brushing under the eye and on the beak.

A pretty good view of those long and curled talons! Fully raised wings are perfect. Fine detail seems lacking as posted IMO.

Thanks, here's one with a bit of gentle PP.
Reduced highlights and a touch of USM.
A little dodging around the eye and face.
Hoping to avoid the 'crunchies'.

sweet view of the talons, the original was crunchy but something disastrous has happened to the repost. it looks like a watercolor painting rather than a photo

TFS

arash_hazeghi said:

sweet view of the talons, the original was crunchy but something disastrous has happened to the repost. it looks like a watercolor painting rather than a photo

TFS

Click to expand...

Could you please explain what you mean by 'crunchy'. The original was unchanged from the RAW image other than for the DPP4 sharpness, and export to web and devices. Do you mean too pixelated because of the crop.

The pose is great.

Pose is great. A bit short on head-angle. The repost is a processing disaster; crunchy to me means over-sharpened and too much contrast ....

with love, artie

Hey Colin, love the pose but agree with the above comments. Would you be willing to post a dropbox link to the original RAW? It might help people make more fine-tuned suggestions as well as post their own take? TFS

Colin Driscoll said:

Could you please explain what you mean by 'crunchy'. The original was unchanged from the RAW image other than for the DPP4 sharpness, and export to web and devices. Do you mean too pixelated because of the crop.

Click to expand...

crunchy means the details look coarse and lack definition, it is not blurry but it looks as if it was painted by a coarse painting brush that doesn't render fine details. Somewhere in your workflow something is really off that causes the consistent poor results, I have no idea what it is but something is wrong somewhat like driving with flat tiers. I am curious as why you don't see it, what kind of monitor do you use?

cheers

Thanks, monitors are dual Dell U2717D run as mosaic because they are my work monitors connected to three PC via KVM.
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/dell-ultrasharp-27-u2717d-review/
What I don't understand is why the first image posted looked crunchy when the only processing was sharpness 3 in DPP4 which is recommended in yours and Artie's guide, plus crop in PS.
I expected the comment from Daniel about the lack of fine detail.

Hi Colin ... you should see the difference from your posting to other postings !!!! In terms of tone/contrast and specially sharpness and FINE details . Just download a file from others i.e. Arash ... and look at them side by side in PS .... you SHOULD see the differences . IMHO .
Your problem starts in DPP already .... IMHO ... you thankfully sent me the cormorant to have a look .... please see my comment with the images attached . Hope this helps ... to see things from a slightly different angle !!

Please other folks should go back to the thread and have a look :Hanging out to dry

Cheers Andreas

Righto, here's the Dropbox link so anyone can have a go at it. Perhaps it is all down to not being close enough!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d530d6a500xq4qh/639A2077.CR2?dl=0

Colin Driscoll said:

Thanks, monitors are dual Dell U2717D run as mosaic because they are my work monitors connected to three PC via KVM.
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/dell-ultrasharp-27-u2717d-review/
What I don't understand is why the first image posted looked crunchy when the only processing was sharpness 3 in DPP4 which is recommended in yours and Artie's guide, plus crop in PS.
I expected the comment from Daniel about the lack of fine detail.

Click to expand...

Hi Colin, the problem could be the KVM switch, these are usually cheap pieces of cr**. The signal is analog VGA and the KVM tries to up-res it resulting in a junk crunchy image. This setup does not work for image processing. you need to connect your monitor directly to your PC's graphic card using a digital display port or HDMI cable that can run at high resolution and full color depth. If you have two monitors you need a graphic card with two outputs not a KVM switch.

I cannot stress the importance of a proper monitor and PC + graphic card for image processing. you put so much time and $$$ in your gear taking the images but then flush everything down the drain by using a terrible setup for image processing, you cannot optimize what you cannot see. Kind of like buying a Porsche then pouring beer in its tank literally every image you post has serious IQ problems at first I thought you may have some vision issues but now I am convinced it is your setup.

cheers

can you post the RAW file for the osprey image? the cormorant is a HUGE crop and the light is coming from the wrong side, it's a delete and not something you can salvage.

Thanks Ari, no it is an ATEN Display Port KVM.
https://www.aten.com/global/en/products/kvm/desktop-kvm-switches/cs1924/
Still I do take your point, might need to get another monitor to plug into just one of the graphics cards.
And I do have good vision, better than 20/20 apparently.

Colin Driscoll said:

Thanks Ari, no it is an ATEN Display Port KVM.
https://www.aten.com/global/en/products/kvm/desktop-kvm-switches/cs1924/
Still I do take your point, might need to get another monitor to plug into just one of the graphics cards.
And I do have good vision, better than 20/20 apparently.

Click to expand...

Any KVM is junk for assessing image quality doesn't matter who makes it. the issue is that Windows does not talk to the KVM switch the same way it talks to a monitor. It will switch to low-res 8bit mode and then KVM tries to upscale the signal....KVM is used in the IT industry when you want to use a single monitor with multiple computers in a lab or office environment where you are using your monitor as a terminal and are not concerned about image quality and color accuracy. It is not intended and suitable for attaching multi monitors to a single computer.

arash_hazeghi said:

can you post the RAW file for the osprey image? the cormorant is a HUGE crop and the light is coming from the wrong side, it's a delete and not something you can salvage.

Click to expand...

Here's the link, thanks.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d530d6a500...A2077.CR2?dl=0

Colin Driscoll said:

Here's the link, thanks.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d530d6a500...A2077.CR2?dl=0

Click to expand...

this is still the cormi image

Oops, try this...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yo6kp469pjnea2c/639A2122.CR2?dl=0