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| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 24 |
Apr 21 |
Comment |
Sam,
Nice concept, the result has a good vibe. One area to fix >>> there is a halo around the rider's head. That should be easily fixable by touching up the mask used to cut the rider's background out. I would not crop anything from the top, it moves the rider's head too close to the edge, and upsets the compositional balance for me. The dark areas on the right do not bother me as much as Thoro, but I would still crop on the right to move the subject somewhat off center. If you had not told us of your intent re the shadows I would have assumed they were muddy spots in the road. However, if you desire shadows to enhance the feeling of depth, it must be consistent with the subject's illumination which appears to be coming from about 45 degrees to the viewer's right. Overall, I like the image. Tab |
Apr 23rd |
| 24 |
Apr 21 |
Comment |
Albert, This is an interesting landscape. I think your composition is just right for this situation. I would imagine there are many scenes to be captured in this particular area. You have preserved that dark moodiness, but in doing so makes the image less interesting to me. Thoro's version gives the mountain some much needed depth which I like (ie separation of the layers), but makes things too bright thus sacrificing the mood you wish to portray. It also brings out what appears to be noise and makes the image too harsh. The water in your version is a bit too dull and Thoro makes it maybe a bit too bright. I think to do this image justiceI would create about 5 layer masks on the major mountain and adjust each one separately. The water would get its own layer mask, as would the sky, as well as the distant mountains. It's what Ansel Adams would do and it would come out looking really great. It is a project and it would take me probably a week of playing to bring it off. As Ansel said, "The negative (file) is the score, the print is the performance".
Tab |
Apr 9th |
| 24 |
Apr 21 |
Comment |
Nice image Jim!! The background softness, tone, and color support the eagle very well. Larry's comment re noise piqued my curiosity. I did not notice it in the initial viewing so I enlarged the image to fill my screen (I have a 27" iMac Pro 5K). I could see the noise at that point, but then the head and eye are very soft, and that is more of a problem to me than the noise. I think Thoro sees the head softness given his comment on the feather's. Now wrt TOPAZ ... One of our club members did a study recently on DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI. Both appear to leave all their competitors in the dust. I was more impressed with what the sharpenAI could do to save an image. From my experience in our club, which has some very fine bird photographers, a soft eye is more fatal to an image in salon judging than a noisy background.
Tab |
Apr 9th |
| 24 |
Apr 21 |
Comment |
The other option, that preserves the full reflection, is this. However, to me the head refl is heavily compromised by the bright water and ripples. So for me the previous version is preferred.
Tab |
Apr 2nd |
 |
| 24 |
Apr 21 |
Comment |
Thoro, I like the bird, I like the log perch and pose, I like the contrasting background, but I find the BIG Blazing white area at bottom and RH corner just too much. It swamps out the bird which deserves all my attention. The fuzzy branches in the corner do not help me either. So I would take a different approach entirely. The reflection of the bird is nice, but he is seriously amputated by the hot reflection so I am willing to sacrifice. If it were all there I would go after a vertical comp with the white sky reflection cropped out. It is a place to go back to again and again.
Tab |
Apr 2nd |
 |
| 24 |
Apr 21 |
Comment |
Steve, Nice capture!! The rocks are definitely important as an anchor. I would tone them down a bit with an adjustment brush as they are quite hot and add some distraction. Compositionally, I like your choice of crop but I wonder if taking bit more off on the RH side would improve the balance. You could take some from the top if you were trying to provide a specific aspect ratio. Dark birds are a tough subject on which to capture the feather texture, but you have managed to hold them from disappearing into the deep shadow region. Tab |
Apr 2nd |
| 24 |
Apr 21 |
Comment |
Jim, You are right! I did not notice the smudge. I clean my sensors at home usually after each road trip. I have one of those magnifiers with a light that gives a really good view of the focal plane. Normally, I do not take the kit on the road, perhaps I should. I like what you did, it gives me incentive to go back to the NEF and redo the post proc with the modern software. I also don't care for the halo I introduced on the LH edge of the sea stack. I think that would not happen with the Topaz Sharpen AI that I now use. I would probably use some luminosity masking as well. When I find some time I think I will play with it and reprint it to see the difference. Tab |
Apr 2nd |
7 comments - 0 replies for Group 24
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7 comments - 0 replies Total
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