Feather detail
Apr 3, 2020 18:49:35 #
I’m using a canon 80d with 100-400 lens (both relatively new to me) and love to find birds to shoot, both static and in flight. I have always shot in manual but read an article recently about using TV with exposure compensation. This article said for whites add +2 and for blacks -2. Looking at my photos of the Osprey I’m not seeing much feather detail. I do have a subscription to Lightroom (gift from kids) and just trying to learn to use it. Having shot in RAW is there a way to enhance the feather detail?
If anyone wants to play with this feel free. If you send me an email address I will send a RAW file. Thanks for any advice!
Marg
If anyone wants to play with this feel free. If you send me an email address I will send a RAW file. Thanks for any advice!
Marg
Apr 3, 2020 19:01:43 #
Marg wrote:
I’m using a canon 80d with 100-400 lens (both rela... (show quote)
I don't think that shot is bad at all, from that far away, one just will not see a whole lot of feather details!
Apr 3, 2020 19:21:12 #
speters wrote:
I don't think that shot is bad at all, from that far away, one just will not see a whole lot of feather details!
Well then I feel better! Thanks.
Apr 3, 2020 19:30:35 #
You have a wonderful capture there. I wouldn't worry too much about feather detail, you have to be really close to see it. When you look at a bird in your backyard or at a zoo do you see feather detail? Probably not. If you see it in a photo its probably a result of over processing. JMHO 
Apr 3, 2020 19:47:12 #
Apr 3, 2020 19:49:30 #
Oh, that makes sense! I’ve been comparing to some pretty amazing photos posted on here. Thank you for that. You sure don’t seem like a Curmudgeon to me!
Sorry, forgot to quote reply.
Sorry, forgot to quote reply.
Apr 3, 2020 19:53:17 #
foodie65 wrote:
Beautiful shot Marg
Thanks so much, foodie65!
Marg
Apr 3, 2020 20:08:04 #
Marg wrote:
I’m using a canon 80d with 100-400 lens (both rela... (show quote)
As stated the distance excludes great feather detail.
But I figured I would give it a try anyway from your jpeg post.
1. cropped
2. lowered contrast a lot
3. lowered highlights a lot
4. opened the shadows a little
5. texture + just a hair
6. clarity + just a hair
The under sides in the birds own shadow look a bit flat but increasing the exposure would blow the white feathers raven more.
Apr 3, 2020 20:21:28 #
Marg wrote:
Oh, that makes sense! I’ve been comparing to some pretty amazing photos posted on here. Thank you for that. You sure don’t seem like a Curmudgeon to me!
Sorry, forgot to quote reply.
Sorry, forgot to quote reply.
Believe me, he is!
Apr 3, 2020 20:48:53 #
robertjerl wrote:
As stated the distance excludes great feather detail.
But I figured I would give it a try anyway from your jpeg post.
1. cropped
2. lowered contrast a lot
3. lowered highlights a lot
4. opened the shadows a little
5. texture + just a hair
6. clarity + just a hair
The under sides in the birds own shadow look a bit flat but increasing the exposure would blow the white feathers raven more.
But I figured I would give it a try anyway from your jpeg post.
1. cropped
2. lowered contrast a lot
3. lowered highlights a lot
4. opened the shadows a little
5. texture + just a hair
6. clarity + just a hair
The under sides in the birds own shadow look a bit flat but increasing the exposure would blow the white feathers raven more.
That’s nice! I’ll try those adjustments on the RAW image and see what happens. Thank you so much!
Marg
Apr 3, 2020 20:49:24 #
Apr 3, 2020 21:14:51 #
Marg wrote:
I’m using a canon 80d with 100-400 lens (both rela... (show quote)
It looks like it was slightly overexposed. It would help you to identify potential overexposure if you turn on the highlight warning in the camera, so that when you review the image in the preview screen on the back of the camera the overexposed highlights will be blinking. If I had to take a guess, you were about 1/3 to 2/3 stop over exposed. I am not a fan of using an auto exposure mode and adding in compensation. Looking at the histogram and turning on highlight warning might lead to more consistent results.
The osprey was too far away for a lot of feather detail.
Apr 3, 2020 21:58:39 #
Apr 4, 2020 02:45:05 #
Apr 4, 2020 04:59:10 #
A simple lifting the shadows helped but I got better results when I dropped the Highlights and lifted the Exposure for an overall brightening. Adding Contrast would have been too much but extra Clarity can help with the details while limiting the effect on the overall contrast. I also subdued yellow slightly with the HSL tool.
I used the Masking slider in the Details section to keep the sharpening away from the noise but still allow enhancement of the edges. Doing that together with upping the Radius and lowering the Details slider enhanced the effect. Trying to enhance (i.e. sharpen) the fine details would result in a severe noise problem, so I didn't go there.
That's about as close as you'll get to bringing out feather details, but as others have mentioned, don't expect miracles at that distance. You could take things further by making selections for targeted adjustments, and if you were careful that could include extra sharpening for specific areas where noise wasn't going to be an issue, but it definitely wouldn't include smooth or detail-free areas like the sky. It could also include a slight WB shift away from blue for the shadowed underside of the wings and body, extra Highlights reduction for the brightest white feathers, extra brightening for the darkest parts of the shadows and extra denoise for the sky.
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I used the Masking slider in the Details section to keep the sharpening away from the noise but still allow enhancement of the edges. Doing that together with upping the Radius and lowering the Details slider enhanced the effect. Trying to enhance (i.e. sharpen) the fine details would result in a severe noise problem, so I didn't go there.
That's about as close as you'll get to bringing out feather details, but as others have mentioned, don't expect miracles at that distance. You could take things further by making selections for targeted adjustments, and if you were careful that could include extra sharpening for specific areas where noise wasn't going to be an issue, but it definitely wouldn't include smooth or detail-free areas like the sky. It could also include a slight WB shift away from blue for the shadowed underside of the wings and body, extra Highlights reduction for the brightest white feathers, extra brightening for the darkest parts of the shadows and extra denoise for the sky.
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