Problem?

I took this shot in RAW, ISO 1600, F7.1 1/500.
I did some minor tweaks in ACR and then imported to photoshop. Removed the noise with Imagnomic's Noiseware filter and then did a minor Hue/Saturation adjustment and then a medium Unsharp Mask.
Now when I print it out, it almost appears as if I put the Heron image onto the water. The edges of the bird look artificial. Any ideas on this?

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Do you have the original you could post? If you're not careful with noiseware you can wipe out a lot of your detail. It's a highly aggressive noise reduction tool if you simply use the default settings.

The photo does have a soft look to it now.

How do I go about posting my RAW original?

Do you agree with my assessment of the shot?

bianson wrote in post #6020108
How do I go about posting my RAW original?

Do you agree with my assessment of the shot?

I can't agree until I see the original. By original I mean an unedited JPG (same size as the first you posted). Just export your RAW after resizing as a JPG and post it. It looks as though you've lost a lot of texture in the feathers.

The combined use of too much noise reduction and then unsharp mask gives a painted quality to an image. Just be a little more conservative with both.

Here's a copy that was opened in Adobe Camera Raw, no edits, and then saved from CS3 as a jpg, again with no edits.

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Adobe Camera Raw comes with preset sharpening figures, third button from the left,
directly under your histogram, what's it set for?

I don't see enough noise in that picture (as a jpeg, original may still require it) to even require noise reduction. I would add in some exposure, a little bit of levels and sharpen it.

Make an exposure adjustment and put a little contrast in it, and I will bet it looks great. I don't think much sharpening is required.

chauncey,
Amount 25, Radius 1, Detail 25 and Masking 0

This version is with the suggestions that mattograph made.

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Nice touch.

Looks great. Especially at 1600 ISO. Must have been a Nikon!

Sorry mattograph...it's a Canon The 40D does a pretty good job at those higher ISO settings.

bianson wrote in post #6023411
Sorry mattograph...it's a Canon The 40D does a pretty good job at those higher ISO settings.

Shoot, I'll have to get one of those....

Wait -- I have one!!!

I took your original and came up with this, the difference is subtle;

Change your sharpening presets to Amt 40-50, Radius 0.7 and Detail 5-10. Noise reduction only as needed.

You want to use spot metering and a wide open aperture when you use those long lenses.
You want to expose the subject and to hell with the surroundings, this will involve watching
the in camera metering (in viewfinder) and ignoring the histogram that shows up on the LCD monitor.
If you expose to the right in this one, it won't look "natural".

Drop that ISO to 800 or less, if you can.
SS on that glass, in this situition, make it closer to 1/1000.
Wide open aperture.

On your image, I used the magic wand tool to make a selection and just changed the exposure on the bird, no biggie.

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