Post Processing

[ArthurDent]

I've been working on developing my editing skills and I just completed an editing exercise on a recent photo. I've posted both the uneditied and edited versions of my photo below. I would appreciate comments on anything you see which might be an editing error or which might be improved upon. The shot was taken with a D500 and 300mm f/4 PF at 1/3200 sec., f/4 and ISO1600 (I know ISO is high, but I had the camera set up to take photos of Ospreys diving into the river and didn't want to change anything in case one made a dive).For the purposes of this critique, you can also ignore the background, I know it's bad. I use Lightroom for editing. The edits I applied are as follows:
wb- eyedropper
Basic Panel
exposure +.5
contrast +55
highlights +9
shadows +50
whites +30
blacks -53
clarity +25
vibrance +26
saturation 0
Tone Curve Panel
medium contrast
Detail Panel
sharpening 55
radius 0.5
detail 100
masking 0
Lens Corrections Panel
chromatic aberration correction
profile correction
I also did a local sharpness adjustment of 65 and contrast enhancement of 23 to the bird's eye, beak, legs and feet. I used the clone brush to correct a small overexposed area on the top of the bird's beak.
Thanks for any comments or suggestions.
 

[Anthony]

This is the sort of image which I think needs minimal processing.  The edited version looks artificial and over-cooked to me.

I like the background of the unedited version.  All I would have done would be to brighten the bird slightly.  Luminosity masking (not sure how you do this in LR) should enable the bird to be selectively brightened, probably using a tone curve.

[Jack Dahlgren]

I think the top image has the bird with same subtle lighting as the background. It looks like a real bird to me.

The bottom image is pushed very hard and colors and contrast are over exaggerated. It is starting to look like it was shot with a bad cell phone.

I think it can be tempting to push things, but it is best if we show more respect for the light we have in the scene. This may mean looking harder for images (or at different times, different weather, different angles...) or if we can’t  do that, make it about playing with the light as Birna often does with her images.

So more, or less, the middle is uncomfortable.

[ianwatson]

My first impression was the same. Contrast +55, clarity +25 and a medium contrast curve together is pretty extreme. If you have a later version of Lightroom with the range masking tools then do try Anthony's suggestion.

[ArthurDent]

I appreciate all your inputs. Thank you.

[CS]

The first image lacks the detail of the second, and the background colors are markedly different on my calibrated display.

[Akira]

I would share the overall impression with the previous posters.

The iridescence of the feather looks beautiful, but the edited version looks overcooked.

I think that the amount of sharpening should be decided according to the final image size you need.  If the final size of the image is the same as that of the posted one, you may not even need any additional sharpening.  Reducing the size alone can raise the perceived sharpness.

[Ann]

My feeling is that you tried to accentuate the iridescence in the feathers but you brightened the highlights and saturated too much especially in the feathers on the top of his back.

The background and the railing can't take the overall increased saturation (and would actually be better if saturation was reduced in both of them!)

This is a case where I would reduce saturation and contrast over-all; and then brush them (and Texture and Sharpening as well) back into the feathers, his eye and his beak judiciously using several different Adjustment brushes.

I might go one step further and take the file into Ps to replace that rather unattractive background entirely!

[ArthurDent]

My feeling is that you tried to accentuate the iridescence in the feathers but you brightened the highlights and saturated too much especially in the feathers on the top of his back.

The background and the railing can't take the overall increased saturation (and would actually be better if saturation was reduced in both of them!)

This is a case where I would reduce saturation and contrast over-all; and then brush them (and Texture and Sharpening as well) back into the feathers, his eye and his beak judiciously using several different Adjustment brushes.

I might go one step further and take the file into Ps to replace that rather unattractive background entirely!

Thank you for your analysis. I didn’t use the saturation slider, but did use the vibrance slider, which has a similar effect, but is supposedly more subtle,  but maybe not so much in this case. I also used the clarity slider which has the effect of emphasizing mid tones and increasing sharpness. I will back off both of those. Unfortunately, the version of lightroom I have only has 1 adjustment brush, but I will try using it as you suggested.

[ArthurDent]

I would share the overall impression with the previous posters.

The iridescence of the feather looks beautiful, but the edited version looks overcooked.

I think that the amount of sharpening should be decided according to the final image size you need.  If the final size of the image is the same as that of the posted one, you may not even need any additional sharpening.  Reducing the size alone can raise the perceived sharpness.

Thank you for your opinion. I will reduce sharpness and contrast in my next iteration.

[Ann]

You might want to take a look at more recent versions of your software because there have been huge changes.

You can now use Adjustment Brushes to brush-in only those components which you want to use. Then you start a new Adjustment Brush (with different settings) for another part of the image. Brushes can now be masked to affect only certain parts of the Luminance-range or selected colours.

There is also Texture now (in addition to Clarity) and that works to enhance high-frequency detail in things like fine hairs and feathers without introducing the heavy black edges which Clarity creates.

[armando_m]

Agree with the general comments, I would have brushed in some vibrance to get the blues to stand out a bit , and that's it