Eastern kingbird misses its lunch: Dix Park, Raleigh, NC. That is the exact sequence of events, per the file numbers and time stamps in the EXIFs. I am not sure what happened and why...

srsincary Loc: Cary, NC

Dix Park, Raleigh, NC.

That is the exact sequence of events, per the file numbers and time stamps in the EXIFs. I am not sure what happened and why the bird could not grab onto the food (or even what food it is)!

Comments and critiques welcome.

(Download)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Nice sequence! But, in your processing, have a look at what / where is causing the halo around all the subjects. This is typically 'over sharpening'. But, possibly it was caused by the mask selection of this subjects for noise processing? For a new Z8 at ISO-180, how much sharpening or noise processing would even be needed, where a halo is added as a result?

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Yep, I agree with CHG_CANON in all respects

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

A tragedy in four parts, Ronnie!

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Nice sequence, Ronnie. The halos don't really detract from the overall theme.

srsincary Loc: Cary, NC

CHG_CANON wrote:

Nice sequence! But, in your processing, have a look at what / where is causing the halo around all the subjects. This is typically 'over sharpening'. But, possibly it was caused by the mask selection of this subjects for noise processing? For a new Z8 at ISO-180, how much sharpening or noise processing would even be needed, where a halo is added as a result?

Thank you very much Paul, for viewing and the critique. Yes, Topaz DeNoise was run in Standard mode - in a sort of "reducing whatever noise may be there can't be bad" mode of thinking during PP. I did not inspect the final image at 1:1 magnification and observe the halo. Topaz DeNoise has a Sharpening action by default which can be turned down, which should have been the action on my part.

I have to go back and check how much noise, if any, was there in the first place and update my default PP steps in the future. Thanks again for taking the time to provide feedback.

srsincary Loc: Cary, NC

Thank you, Jack, Ken and Mike for viewing and your feedback.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

srsincary wrote:

Thank you very much Paul, for viewing and the crit... (show quote)

Look at the files from the various steps, to see if you can see the halo appear, that is: original vs output from each of the edit software being passed back n forth. You don't need 100% magnification. Just look at the bird's head in all four thumbnails of this post, especially the third. If you don't see the halo appear from your existing files / intermediary steps, just make a copy of the original and repeat your processing steps, this time with an eye at where the halo(s) appear. If DeNoise is the expected culprit, test with / without / lowered for the Sharpening action.

srsincary Loc: Cary, NC

CHG_CANON wrote:

Look at the files from the various steps, to see i... (show quote)

For the above, after raw --> crop (NX Studio) --> TIF --> DeNoise the .tif file became "only" 6 MB and the .jpg 1.x MB. So I ran it through GigaPixel AI, which introduced the bulk of the halo, even though I just picked the 2x scale option and turned of GigaPixel's own denoise and sharpen options.

This version should have less halo though some sharpening and denoise has been applied to counteract the effects of an aggressive crop of the raw .nef file.

(Download)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

srsincary wrote:

For the above, after raw --> crop (NX Studio) --> TIF --> DeNoise the .tif file became "only" 6 MB and the .jpg 1.x MB. So I ran it through GigaPixel AI, which introduced the bulk of the halo, even though I just picked the 2x scale option and turned of GigaPixel's own denoise and sharpen options.

This version should have less halo though some sharpening and denoise has been applied to counteract the effects of an aggressive crop of the raw .nef file.

File size is not the issue, just a symptom. What were (1) the pixel dimensions of the crop, and (2) was the TIFF output as 8-bit or 16-bit? The halo is coming later, but you might have driven off the road in NX Studio.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I think this is a pretty cool sequence. Maybe when the proposed lunch got closer, he decided it wasn't to his taste. Too much salt?

hettmoe Loc: Rural ND

Very nice photos!

srsincary Loc: Cary, NC

AzPicLady wrote:

I think this is a pretty cool sequence. Maybe when the proposed lunch got closer, he decided it wasn't to his taste. Too much salt?

Maybe (s)he detected a 'hint of poison'?
😳

srsincary Loc: Cary, NC

hettmoe wrote:

Very nice photos!

Thank you hettmoe, for the feedback.

srsincary Loc: Cary, NC

CHG_CANON wrote:

File size is not the issue, just a symptom. What were (1) the pixel dimensions of the crop, and (2) was the TIFF output as 8-bit or 16-bit? The halo is coming later, but you might have driven off the road in NX Studio.

Hi Paul,
I use NX Studio to process .nef files, then export TIFF, 8 bit, and process in PSE - which does not support 16 bit TIFFs. From PSE I invoke Topaz plug-ins. I know, from your past posts, that is not an ideal pipeline. I will invest in the LR+PS subscription when I take more photos, after I retire from my full-time job. 🙂

FWIW, the above pipeline works "well enough" for me. As I indicated above, the halo was introduced by Topaz GigaPixel AI, which I rarely use. And when I changed the image size of the exported TIFF from NX Studio after my crop in NX Studio, the small TIFF file size problem went away. I am not sure how big a problem regarding IQ can be caused by small TIFF files (?).