Common Buzzard.
Even though there are high numbers of these raptors living on Mull, they still usually fly away as soon as a vehicle parks nearby.
Today, this one chose to ignore me, to continue scanning the area below where it was perched, for prey.
Gorgeous, oft overlooked birds, that have a wide range of variations in their plumage colours, and manage to survive in the harshest of conditions.
I'm a fan.
You jammy bugger!
*Really* liking this one, Pete - this presses all the right buttons for me.
What ISO were you at, Pete?
Thanks, Pete.
If you have a chance, could you humour me and put up a version without Topaz, please?
No problem if not.
Thanks, Pete.
OK, if you don't want to have this conversation that's absolutely cool, but: when you sharpen in Lr, do you use the Sharpening Mask tool?
I've been working with a pal who was unhappy with his "noisy" 7D Mk II, and it turned out that it was down to his Lr workflow.
With respect, your buzzard's BG is noisier than I would expect from 1600 ISO and a light(?) crop, so I'm just wondering.
Tell me to mind my own business, by all means!
š
Case in point: not a great picture (not many Buzzards or Eagles on my doorstep! š), this is my R7 at 4000 ISO, cropped.
I sharpened used the Sharpening Masking slider; then I selected the background (Select Subject > Invert), denoised it and "added" some -ve Texture.
I think this looks good, noise-wise - all easily done, and staying within Lr's toolset - and really, I could dial back on the (already light) NR on the bird.
(Again, I will wind my neck in if so instructed..! š)
@keithreeder Just tried that on my buzzard image and it looks great for the background.
A handy tip, thanks š I may well use this in some shots in the future.
It just makes things easier - I think, anyway - not to *have to* hand off to another programme, Pete.
Plus, I find that I can get better results by applying sharpening and NR selectively rather than globally - that way there's less to-and-fro trying to get the perfect balance between the two. Even the "AI" NR apps available nowadays don't know what I want, better than I do.
"Iām assuming LR is more accurate these days at subject selection as it used to be a bit vague at times?"
Works fine for how I use it, Pete: I mainly use it to apply selective sharpening and Texture, which can really bring out fine detail used sparingly.
If I'm dealing with a lot of high ISO stuff, I'll likely use a different converter, one that gets the job done in one hit.
Capture One, say: R7 @ 5k ISO at C1 defaults, and I'm very happy with this in NR (not content!) terms:
Mind you, Lr's not too shabby at "only" 5000 ISO either: nothing done except Sharpening Masking, and Luminance at (an arbitrary) 6:
@keithreeder I do use the mask tool, but I really don't do much in LR.
Looking at your starling though, I might add some steps in.
That said, the background is usually dead easy to smooth out in PS with Neat Image or Topaz. I have more of an issue with noise on subjects, especially white ones, like barn owls (not that I've seen many here).
I should also point out that right now I'm limited to using my old MacBook Pro, not my PC. So images aren't to my usual standards.
Pete Walkden
Keith_R