[missbirdphotos] Re: Coot images
- From: Kristen Eisbrenner <keisbrenner7@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: missbirdphotos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:34:03 -0400
Judy,
Scrolling through the pictures made it difficult to see the differences so
I opened two explorer tabs, and would center one of the images in each.
That way I could see the differences more easily as they pop in or out of
the photo as I click on each tab.
Overall, I like Coot 1 and 2 the best. I especially like the
smoothness/lightness of the water on Coot 1 compared to the rest. I like
that the feathers seemed smoothed down in 1 also--makes the bird look very
sleek. However, Coot 2 feathers stand out more. The bird looks a little
more disheveled but the greater tone/contrast in the feathers is more
visually interesting. I guess the artist in me likes 1 and the
photographer in me likes 2.
I also like the dodged eye so that the red is brighter. Coot 2 eye is the
most beautiful to me.
Like you said, there is very little difference between 3 and 4, and when I
compared them to 1 and 2, I was still drawn to 1 and 2. Don't know why.
I wasn't distracted by the detail in the rocks because it is separate from
the bird. I like Coot 2 rock best for color, tone range/contrast.
In the end though, all are good edits on their own.
Thanks for your comments on my edit. I had no idea if the feathers were
supposed to be black or brown so I'm glad that you noticed mine was too
black. Guess I will have to save up the coins for a calibrator too :)
Kristen
On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 11:22 PM, Judy Howle <howle@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> http://southern-exposures.net/page/coots.htm****
>
> ** **
>
> Coot 1 – In Lightroom 3 I had the following settings: exposure + 20, fill
> light 10, recovery 9, contrast 50, clarity 26, vibrance 25, Sharpening 35
> with masking set to 20 to protect the water, noise reduction 20.****
>
> ** **
>
> In Photoshop I used a slight curves adjustment to darken the lightest
> feathers. I dodged the eye at 35% opacity to lighten it a little. I used
> hue/sat to + 14. I used Smart Sharpen at 80 amt and 1 pixel radius. Images
> are 1000 pixels in height to show details. (I think all images for
> evaluation should be at least 800 pixels high if vertical to see any
> details.)****
>
> ** **
>
> Coot 2 – I used Nik Color Efex 4 Tonal Contrast on the converted image
> before the sharpening at half of the default settings, as recommended by
> Arthur Morris, and slid the whites slider up a bit to protect the beak. I
> chose to brush on the filter just to the coot and rocks to keep the water
> less contrasty and detailed.(Maybe I should have left it off the rocks?)
> Then I applied Smart Sharpen.****
>
> ** **
>
> Coot 3 – I used Topaz Adjust and brushed off the effects on the water
> inside the plugin. Applied Smart Sharpen. ****
>
> ** **
>
> Coot 4 – I selected the coot and rocks with the Quick Selection tool and
> put that on layer. Then I ran Noiseware on the background image to further
> remove noise, and I ran Topaz Adjust on the bird/rocks selection and then
> used Smart Sharpen on it and flattened the image. Not much difference from
> Coot 3 but the noise is a little less. I don’t normally go to this extreme
> as the noise isn’t usually too bad after raw conversion. I also have
> Noiseware and Topaz DeNoise but that does take some detail out of the
> feathers if one looks close on a larger image like these. I think I used
> Noiseware on the whole image of Coot 4 as the Tonal Contrast filter made it
> show up more.****
>
> ** **
>
> Feel free to comment on what you like or don’t like or suggestions.****
>
> ** **
>
> Judy Howle****
>
> ** **
>
> Southern Exposures****
>
> http://southernexposure.zenfolio.com****
>
> ** **
>
> Digital Photography Class; Resources for Photographers****
>
> http://digitalphotographyclass.net****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
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