Goldfinch portrait. Image edit added.

DonnaM

DonnaM

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Donna
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TP_DSC3544.jpg


Thanks for looking
 
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Good capture..............just a shame it has the shadow of a branch running down it's body.........but still good neverthe less. :clap::clap:
 
Same reflex as crusher, damn those shadows!!! But still a super goldie shot, Nice one Dawn!!

Tara
 
nice one donna, don't have a problem with the branch shadow.
 
Thanks guys & gals. I must say I completely missed the shadow. Oh, the path to perfection is long and arduous!
 
DonnaM said:
Thanks guys & gals. I must say I completely missed the shadow. Oh, the path to perfection is long and arduous!
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Yes Donna ... but you have a picture of "The Shadow" :D

What 'Picture Setting' are you using on the D300, reason I ask is the colours do not look as saturated as on mine, there is a Goldfinch image in my gallery if you want to compare and see what I mean.

Nice crisp shot of the Goldfinch, nice pose as well (y)
 
Martyn... said:
Yes Donna ... but you have a picture of "The Shadow" :D

What 'Picture Setting' are you using on the D300, reason I ask is the colours do not look as saturated as on mine, there is a Goldfinch image in my gallery if you want to compare and see what I mean.

Nice crisp shot of the Goldfinch, nice pose as well (y)
Click to expand...

D300 picture setting is "Standard" but Lightroom has overlayed that with "Adobe Standard". I have just changed the settings in LR and yes the colours do saturate up a bit especially the greens. There was also +14 clarity and +10 vibrance to the camera raw settings on the posted image.

Any suggestions/advice on camera raw settings especially sharpening would be greatly appreciated.

Just had a look at your gallery, very impressive! The Goldie does look a bit more saturated and the light is warmer. Hmm methinks some tweaking is in order for future posts.
 
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Donna I set the camera to 'Standard' with saturation +1, all others default, however I am using Capture NX2 which means I can change all this in post anyway, if I wanted to (which I do not generally), as it lists all the camera menu settings. Standard +1 sat works great for jpegs for holiday snaps, I prefer Neutral for people / moody stuff.

Now then sharpening for the web ....

Get the photo how you want it to look, nice and sharp.

Now in Photoshop (Elements is fine)

Open the image and save for web @1280 pixels longest side, at maximum quality.

Save this to a separate folder (I have one called resized)

Now open this resized image in Photoshop, auto sharpen (it will look over done) now save for web again, this time 800 pixels and at a quality that will keep it below 180Kb.

This will give a nice crisp image for web viewing.

You can sometimes auto sharpen the 1280 image twice, then save as 800 pixels it depends how heavy a crop you had to start with, but is a trial and error thing.

Your initial save is 1.6x the final required size (1.6 x 800 = 1280) if you need to apply for different web site sizing other than this one.
 
Martyn... said:
Donna I set the camera to 'Standard' with saturation +1, all others default, however I am using Capture NX2 which means I can change all this in post anyway, if I wanted to (which I do not generally), as it lists all the camera menu settings. Standard +1 sat works great for jpegs for holiday snaps, I prefer Neutral for people / moody stuff.

Now then sharpening for the web ....

Get the photo how you want it to look, nice and sharp.

Now in Photoshop (Elements is fine)

Open the image and save for web @1280 pixels longest side, at maximum quality.

Save this to a separate folder (I have one called resized)

Now open this resized image in Photoshop, auto sharpen (it will look over done) now save for web again, this time 800 pixels and at a quality that will keep it below 180Kb.

This will give a nice crisp image for web viewing.

You can sometimes auto sharpen the 1280 image twice, then save as 800 pixels it depends how heavy a crop you had to start with, but is a trial and error thing.

Your initial save is 1.6x the final required size (1.6 x 800 = 1280) if you need to apply for different web site sizing other than this one.
Click to expand...


Thanks for that, looks like I will have to re-visit Capture NX2, Lightroom has made me lazy.
 
DonnaM said:
Just had a look at your gallery, very impressive! The Goldie does look a bit more saturated and the light is warmer. Hmm methinks some tweaking is in order for future posts.
Click to expand...

Thanks Donna .... years of practice .... too many years :D

That Goldie would have been Standard +1 Saturation, active d lighting set. Would have been set to 'Sunny' white balance (always is) as outdoors in the day it is always sunlight that is the source, even when there is light cloud (would change to cloudy if dark grey stuff).

The other thing with that Goldie was that I was close, about 4 - 5m which is a big help.

The other thing is getting the light right, still maintaining the basics of photography of having the light coming over your shoulder, the only time I would ignore this would be for a rare bird where it just is not possible.
 
DonnaM said:
Thanks for that, looks like I will have to re-visit Capture NX2, Lightroom has made me lazy.
Click to expand...

Lightroom drove me to despair, I downloaded several trials of the different software, I just use Capture NX2 and Elements 6. There is a great book by Ben Long on using Capture NX2, nicely laid out and simple to follow.
 
Martyn... said:
Lightroom drove me to despair, I downloaded several trials of the different software, I just use Capture NX2 and Elements 6. There is a great book by Ben Long on using Capture NX2, nicely laid out and simple to follow.
Click to expand...

I like (most of the time) the cataloging features of LR and its integration with camera raw has made me lazy. I have capture NX2 and have just used it to edit this image and have improved the sharpness and colour saturation. Thanks too for the heads up on the book, I hope amazon stocks it.
 
This is the same image but processed a la Martyn... Impressive but it looks a little overcooked to me. Maybe somewhere in between would be about right?

TP_DSC3544_NX2.jpg


Thoughts anyone?
 
A lovely shot, and very sharp, but agree it's somewhere in the middle of the two shots.
 
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