Feedback on PP please

[Rita]

Hi everyone,

I started playing around with a pic last night and came up with a look and I really don't know how I got there. Just played around
and this is the result. What do you think of the pp, I am trying to decide if I like it or not. The sooc is the first pic and the second is the edit. Any feedback is always most appreciated.

1. SOOC



2. Edited

[bnnrcn]

Hi Rita,it is nice but I find the colours in SOOC nicer,especially the back of the bird and the wings.I'm a beginner,so let's see what the others will say

[Digital]

The second one seems to have a lot of noise.

Bruce

[Shadowman]

Can you redo the edit to the point before you would change the background?

[Geoff F]

The original, shot with a high Iso setting does indeed have a lot of noise, which is quite common under those conditions. Ideally, for a sitting bird, I would have cut the Iso by at least half and reduced the shutter speed to suit.

But you often don't get much in the way of 'thinking time' with this sort of shot; as I know to my cost!

Sometimes, when faced with noisy backgrounds, I run a light Blur Brush around the problem areas.

Another option is to edit to produce more of a 'painting appearance' as in this case. And this has worked reasonably well.

The only slight problem that I can see is a little bit of 'colour fringing' on the top side of the beak. Very little though, and may not show in a print.

[chauncey]

Shooting birds, even those in the backyard, do take some planning. I always use a tripod with a remote shutter, then set my ISO at 100-200, f/4.0, and SS to expose to the right. You will find that will generally be quite slow...take a whole bunch of pictures as some of them will be a "still bird".

[Stagecoach]

Rita,

You have made quite a change from the original and have produced an interesting result, only you know how My only comment is that in doing so you could have left just a bit more room to the left of the bird.

Grahame

[Downrigger]

Nice job. Nice demonstration of a Junco, little birds it's easy to like.

Per the others, agree it's a bit noisy. - don't mind it in back ground but it's on the Junco too. Not sure what your PP software is but in LR masking in the sharpening panel and luminance noise reduction should help (if not already maxed).
On my screen, there's pretty significant fringing of the belly feather-edges which detracts. I don't see it in the native shot so it may be an artifact of the adjustments you made to background color and luminance. In any case, I think John is helpful when he suggests re-tracing your steps and watching for when it appears - then titrating it down.

[pnodrog]

Personal I think the original background is fine. However if you want to extract an item from a dark background and place it on a light background you need to be extra careful with the edges especially if they are translucent or fine detail. I have reduced the noise on background and quickly cloned over the dark edges of the light coloured feathers with the clone mode set to lighten. Hopefully this clones the new background over the dark patches but the lighter feathers remain as they are. It is a useful approach in many cloning situations. Working with a full sized file you can achieve results that would make it extremely difficult to spot that the background has been changed. This was just a quick edit that can be improved on taking a bit more time and care.

[jamn4ex]

Hi Rita Nice bird shot. The noise I blame on iso, I shoot birds very similar to Chauncys description except I will crank my iso upto 400 sometimes 800. I usually use spot meter for little birds also, I like to shoot the smallest dof I can so my aperature is usually wide open, that helps a lot with bothersome backgrounds and allows a faster shutterspeed. I almost always use a tripod or beanbag for the little birds and lots of shots when I like what I see threw viewfinder. Looking forward to seeing more of your bird shots.

[Rita]

Hi Wm, I did not use my tripod for this pic but I did take a whole lot of shots. It was quit cloudy and in order to get a high shutter speed I boosted the ISO which in turn gave me very grainy pics. I need to keep practicing so that I will find a balance that is a happy medium. Next time I will use my tripod too

Shooting birds, even those in the backyard, do take some planning. I always use a tripod with a remote shutter, then set my ISO at 100-200, f/4.0, and SS to expose to the right. You will find that will generally be quite slow...take a whole bunch of pictures as some of them will be a "still bird".

[Rita]

Can you redo the edit to the point before you would change the background?

John, I have know idea what I clicked on to change the background but I can sure start again from the start...good practice. This was a good lesson for me to write down what I did in the process

[Rita]

Nice job. Nice demonstration of a Junco, little birds it's easy to like.

Per the others, agree it's a bit noisy. - don't mind it in back ground but it's on the Junco too. Not sure what your PP software is but in LR masking in the sharpening panel and luminance noise reduction should help (if not already maxed).
On my screen, there's pretty significant fringing of the belly feather-edges which detracts. I don't see it in the native shot so it may be an artifact of the adjustments you made to background color and luminance. In any case, I think John is helpful when he suggests re-tracing your steps and watching for when it appears - then titrating it down.

Mark, I use elements 11 and I know that there is luminance and masking in there. I see from trial and error what the luminance does but can you explain to me what the masking does?

[Rita]

L. Paul, thank you for the explanation of what you did. It always helps me when I 'see' the difference

[Rita]

Hi Rita Nice bird shot. The noise I blame on iso, I shoot birds very similar to Chauncys description except I will crank my iso upto 400 sometimes 800. I usually use spot meter for little birds also, I like to shoot the smallest dof I can so my aperature is usually wide open, that helps a lot with bothersome backgrounds and allows a faster shutterspeed. I almost always use a tripod or beanbag for the little birds and lots of shots when I like what I see threw viewfinder. Looking forward to seeing more of your bird shots.

Thanks James, there will be more shots as I am really working on birds. I have a lot to learn!