Over Processing?

Hi all, new here. Recently I have been thinking I have been over processing my raw images in LR 5. I really am starting to notice it now I am getting into wildlife photography. Not sure if my technique is getting sloppy or I am just noticing that I have poorly edited in the past.

For example the two images below (not my best), the first one I am not certain what is wrong but it doesn't feel right. I am thinking the white balance but not sure, could be the crop I have selected.
For the second image I had to recover a lot in the shadows but it doesn't feel natural to me in some way.

My usual workflow is by using the Auto button in LR and then tweaking from there, often adding 5-10 Clarity, 0 - 20 Vibrance and working through the other panels, including lens corrections. Obviously it depends on the image.

Does anyone have any tips?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/rJwP​wY

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qyRn​i8

Just my unprofessional opinion: They look a little "warm" to me. I would decrease the temp a little, and maybe also decrease the highlights (maybe -35 to -50). But it could just be my monitor here at work.

I agree with Moose, although I would expect the second one to be warm as it is clearly golden hour.

On the first I would def bring down the highlights on the bird using the adjustment brush to just target highlights. I might also use the adjustment brush to add clarity to the metal post to bring out the texture.

For me though the biggest problem is that neither image appears to be level. In the first shot the post may well have been leaning to the left but (positioned at the edge of the frame as it is) it looks as if the image is not level.

Image to the horizon in the background also appears not to be level which is distracting.

Thanks guys.

I have found that I tend to make my images on the warm side, but if I adjust it down I feel it is too cold. White balance hasn't been on of my strong points when editing. I know you can use a grey/white card and then use the eyedropper but when you are taken quick shots I am not sure of the best way to set it.

Dan, I see what you mean about not being level. In the first shot if I adjusted the angle, then the feeder may look tilted. Would re-cropping help in this situation?

I will level the second one and see what happens. This shot has been edited more than normal, the original looks a bit flat and dull.

Regarding the rules, would I be allowed to post up edited versions of these or is it just 2 photos per thread?

#1 is overexposed in the highlights - there's no detail in the birds chest, and the nuts are blown slightly. Turn on clipping warning in your raw processor - though remember some clipping in the red channel in skjin is normal. Maybe a touch warm.

#2 looks good to me. I like warm.

1st pic, overexposed. At least by 1 stop. WB needs tweaking. there's a peachy cast to the whites.

2nd pic is a little overexposed, esp in the jesus lights and foreground grass. Darkening it will make it look a lot more dramatic. Otherwise, a nice pic.

Hope this helps.

WildernessTracker wrote in post #17498984
Dan, I see what you mean about not being level. In the first shot if I adjusted the angle, then the feeder may look tilted. Would re-cropping help in this situation?

If you didn't want to rotate it too much, cropping off that dagger of space on the right side of the post would help to hide the tilt. Try changing the angle and see how it looks though because the feeder is leaning a bit.

I'd agree with Aswald here; bring down the exposure (aka. midtones/gamma) and it looks better. The colour cast doesn't bother me though; with the exposure reduced, the warm colours of the background, the nuts and the post all look quite nice and having a creamy brown tint to the bird's whites fits in well.

Thanks for the feedback.

I have made some of the edits as suggested.
The woodpecker does look much better, I can see the detail now in the whites.

Hopefully the second one looks better now.

I also reduced the sharpness of these as I appear to have went a bit too far on sharpening

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/rT8U​Jt

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/rACy​a3

Much better, nice work.

In the second image the trees have a slight halo. This is often caused by too much Clarity.

Much better on #1

I have noticed that halo appear a few times when processing, is it usually associated with clarity?

WildernessTracker wrote in post #17500267
I have noticed that halo appear a few times when processing, is it usually associated with clarity?

I think over sharpening (and not using the mask option) can also cause a halo.

It seems sometimes that almost any processing that significantly boosts the contrast can bring up those halos. Not just by adding sharpening. I can often get them to appear with the contrast clarity and vibrance sliders at zero and no added sharpening. All it seems to take is using the black and white point sliders to boost the contrast. As mentioned they are usually associated with over sharpening. But I they also seem to become visible on unsharpened very high contrast edges, such as sky/horizon interfaces. I also find it a problem with my aircraft shots, especially if I then pull down the luminosity of the blue channel to darken the sky.

Alan