Northern Palm Squirrel

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

• NIKON CORPORATION NIKON Z 9
• NIKKOR Z 400mm f/4.5 VR S Z TC-2.0x
• ƒ/9
• 800mm
• 1/3200s
• ISO 6400
• 27.722751666667
• 85.358003333333
• 1334m above sea level
• Sat, 18 May 2024 6:50 PM
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.5 (Windows)

A new poster with an uncertain identity: Northern Palm Squirrel. This was taken last May in a natural oasis in the urban center of Kathmandu, Nepal. Soft morning light. Kathmandu is usually hazy this time of year.
The tongue was a surprise.

This is a full frame shot:

Nikon Z9
Nikon 400 f/4.5 lens + 2xTCE (800mm)
ISO 6400
F/9.0
1/3200
Handheld
Processing:
Topaz DeNoise
Nik SilverEfex for tone, contrast and structure.
Photoshop Luminosity Blend add color back
Topaz Adjust for adaptive exposure and color,
PS for Sharpen Edges.

Thanks for looking and commenting.
Cheers,
-Michael-

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Michael,

Glad to see you back and posting:S3: And thank you for this image, your little Palm Squirrel is super cute. Certainly a fun pose, love those little toes and the visible tongue is a bonus.

Techs look good and subject's face is sharp with good detail. Had you moved a tad to the right you might have been able to avoid the OOF bark, or part of the tree trunk, behind the tongue. Draws the eye a bit.

If you happen to have some frames where one can see the squirrel's body and tail, please share them! I would have tried a vertical shot here as well. For me this looks a bit tight, do appreciate the space on the LHS but I feel more is needed below the squirrel.

Shall not comment too much on colour as I've never seen this character before :tinysmile_shy_t:. Sky looks ok to me, just be careful with those fine hairs of the squirrel's coat as they look bit on the 'blue' side, probably a masking issue.

Once again thank you for sharing Michael, much appreciated. Hope to see more from you!

Kind regards,

 

[Steve Kaluski]

LOL Gabriela beat me to it Michael in posting a comment, but hey... nice to see you back posting and nice to have a fresh pair of eyes commenting first too. :S3:

Overall it looks like quite a big crop, albeit you don't say if this is FF or a crop as the detail should be far better, hence why I feel this is a crop. I also think you are using a lot more software than you need to do, Ps (Camera Raw ACR) will do as your raw converter and the Denoise within ACR makes a far better job than Topaz, albeit (very British phrase) dose create a DNG file which is like another raw which you can work on then export as a tiff to Ps.

I think a Portrait format would have been a better option, but a slightly looser crop, the original format could work. Lighting looks a bit mixed and the bark somewhat washed out, however the tongue is a nice feature. There is a massive halo around the LHS of the bark and a slight green tinge in the fur of the left leg and I might neutralise the blue in the eye and ear. At actual size there is some noise still in the darks, was the file under exposed, ie where you avoided blowing the sky, rendering the subject darker? Just a thought.

Does the 2x pop the f-stop to say f/8, if not I think may be shooting more wide open and say 1/2000 sec could have helped the ISO?

Hope to see more.

TFS
Steve

 

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Thank you Gabriela and Steve for your comments. This is a full frame shot. These are very reactive critters and at 800 mm I was happy to get anything in frame. With the 2x wide open is f/9 so that is the only option I think. The choice of portrail or landscape is determined on the fly with going with the orientation I have at the moment when the opportunity arises for any shot of this kind of subject. I don't use tripods (beyond my patience and capability to manage). So handholding 800 mm, getting the subject in frame at all is the goal. I do the best I can to frame the shot but there isn't always many options.

Good point about trying NR with ACR (which I imagine converting with Lightroom would do). I'm a retired NASA computer engineer that worked most of my career on synthetic images. I developed my workflow some years ago and found converting to B&W to do the lion's share of processing with Silver Efex to my liking. Contrast, brightness, structure are the primary adjustments (if you've not used Silver Efex). With structure having impacts on noise, sharpness and acutance. I reintroduced color with luminosity blend in Photoshop and then adjusted with Topaz Adjust. A little excentric, I know, but it works for me. I'm always a bit conflicted on color rendition since color model is often out of my hands with respect to browser determination not to mention monitor calibration. I'll adjust to output as needed but mostly for print which tends to be interactive since to my eye color is best adjusted case by case and paper matters greatly.

Pardon my ramble. Thanks much for your comments. Gabriela, I don't have a good shot of the full length of this squirrel but I have a shot of another one from Prague, Czechia that is one of my favorite squirrels that I'll work up and post. It has the greatest ears.

Cheers,

-Michael-

 

[Jonathan Ashton]

Michael, a lot has been said I have little to offer, my personal opinion is that the subject is a little too large in the frame and I would have preferred to see more if not all of the animal - I appreciate not easy to change your lenses etc when on the fly as it were. You have your workflow - my only suggestion would be to simplify it, again you have your preferences but in my experience the more you add different filters and layers the greater the opportunity for matters to be improved - or not improved too. I feel you could get better details from the raw file with a simplified workflow.

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Michael ... will not come around with another version of suggestions for improvements or how to run your workflow , as I have already stated that in avian .
So i will keep it simple , super cool shot with the tongue sticking out :cheers:

Wish you had shot this in portrait orientation

TFS Andreas

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Good point about trying NR with ACR (which I imagine converting with Lightroom would do). I'm a retired NASA computer engineer that worked most of my career on synthetic images. I developed my workflow some years ago and found converting to B&W to do the lion's share of processing with Silver Efex to my liking. Contrast, brightness, structure are the primary adjustments (if you've not used Silver Efex). With structure having impacts on noise, sharpness and acutance. I reintroduced color with luminosity blend in Photoshop and then adjusted with Topaz Adjust. A little excentric, I know, but it works for me. I'm always a bit conflicted on color rendition since color model is often out of my hands with respect to browser determination not to mention monitor calibration. I'll adjust to output as needed but mostly for print which tends to be interactive since to my eye color is best adjusted case by case and paper matters greatly.

Hi Michael, the ramble was very informative, and info I had forgotten about.

The issue is you have a camera that is relatively complex, but delivers awesome images, I know as I have spent the last few months understanding it, but ultimately the older Software and workflow won't get the best from the newer files IMHO. There may be a bit of re learning and you don't need to invest in massive amounts of Software. If you understand Ps to even a basic grasp then getting both Lr & Ps for around $10 per month via Adobe CC and where you get free updates is a no brainer in my book. Long gone are the days where you bought Ps (Creative suite) CD for over $400, had one license and then had to pay for all upgrades.

If you buy the new version of Lr or ACR after import scroll down to Denoise and tap in a % value, if you want a guide let me know, this will then generate a DNG file on which you then work on in Lr or ACR and then Export into Ps for your selective adjustments.

Colour rendition is fairly simple providing you get key things in place and don't allow Adobe to take over, but ultimately having a monitor that is calibrated properly and no addition light is hitting the face of the monitor you should be all good. I'm a mole that works in the dark, the only light is from the monitors themselves so it then comes down to personal POV/tastes and interpretation....

If you Soft proof in Lr for printing and use ICC profiles for beach type of paper then you should be fine.

All the best.
Steve

 

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Thank you all for your comments. It has been a long time since I analyzed my workflow. I'm all for simplifying and getting better results. I'm a retired person who travels extensively, who is starting to write, and is trying to balance enthusiasm for bird photography, travel photography, infrared photography, not to mention printing and painting. Yeah, simplify. I'm all for that. I look forward to your helpful guidance.

Cheers,
-Michael-

 

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Gabriela and Steve for your comments. This is a full frame shot. These are very reactive critters and at 800 mm I was happy to get anything in frame. With the 2x wide open is f/9 so that is the only option I think. The choice of portrail or landscape is determined on the fly with going with the orientation I have at the moment when the opportunity arises for any shot of this kind of subject. I don't use tripods (beyond my patience and capability to manage). So handholding 800 mm, getting the subject in frame at all is the goal. I do the best I can to frame the shot but there isn't always many options.

Good point about trying NR with ACR (which I imagine converting with Lightroom would do). I'm a retired NASA computer engineer that worked most of my career on synthetic images. I developed my workflow some years ago and found converting to B&W to do the lion's share of processing with Silver Efex to my liking. Contrast, brightness, structure are the primary adjustments (if you've not used Silver Efex). With structure having impacts on noise, sharpness and acutance. I reintroduced color with luminosity blend in Photoshop and then adjusted with Topaz Adjust. A little excentric, I know, but it works for me. I'm always a bit conflicted on color rendition since color model is often out of my hands with respect to browser determination not to mention monitor calibration. I'll adjust to output as needed but mostly for print which tends to be interactive since to my eye color is best adjusted case by case and paper matters greatly.

Pardon my ramble. Thanks much for your comments. Gabriela, I don't have a good shot of the full length of this squirrel but I have a shot of another one from Prague, Czechia that is one of my favorite squirrels that I'll work up and post. It has the greatest ears.

Cheers,

-Michael-

Thank you Michael, no ramble at all and I was looking forward to your reply. Would love to see your favourite squirrel! I imagine it has those awesome tufts on its ears...:w3