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Post Processing

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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.

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