Here I am again

[Clovishound]

This is another image that I find something in it that I really like, but it just seems to miss the mark somehow. The story behind this one is that I went back to try my hand at some more hummingbird images. I tried several different exposure settings. This one was the one I bumped up the shutter speed to 1/8000 of a sec just to see the difference. As I started editing some of them, I discovered I really liked the pose and look of this image. BUT, the high ISO (7200) probably ended up killing the fine detail. It did kind of give it a nice soft look, but I'm used to good detail in my wildlife pictures. At high magnification this looks overprocessed. I ran it through Topaz, and believe I actually backed down slightly off the recommended denoise and sharpen values.

Is it just me holding too tightly to high detail expectations? Or, should I just can this one and move on?

 

[BF Hammer]

You set high standards for yourself. I have been guilty of doing that also sometimes. But in this case I would be overjoyed by that photo.
I do have to hold myself back from over-processing with the noise reduction when I am working with high-ISO photos. I just try to remember that some of that noise fixes itself when resizing to smaller size for posting.

 

[hark]

In Topaz are you basing your sharpening and noise reduction solely on the humming bird? The background noise can easily be adjusted in Lightroom or Camera RAW by using an adjustment brush and painting over the background.

 

[Clovishound]

I used Photo AI and let it do it's thing in RAW Denoise. Like I said earlier, I believe I adjusted sharpness and denoise down just a bit before rendering it. I could edit it again from scratch in LR, but both the background and the bird needed denoise. Also, I don't see an option in Topaz to selectively denoise the subject.

 

[BF Hammer]

I used Photo AI and let it do it's thing in RAW Denoise. Like I said earlier, I believe I adjusted sharpness and denoise down just a bit before rendering it. I could edit it again from scratch in LR, but both the background and the bird needed denoise. Also, I don't see an option in Topaz to selectively denoise the subject.

I think Hark was just recommending to duplicate the photo into a 2nd layer and process the denoise differently on each layer. Aggressive denoise to become the background and the bird layer you tone down the denoise so sharp detail is preserved. Add a layer mask and paint it to reveal the layer below.

 

[Clovishound]

I've never used PS for denoise operations, and am rather inexperienced in the use of layers, except for specific operations I can't do in LR. I suppose I could process the image in Topaz using different slider inputs, then import the two into PS and try my hand at using layers. I really should become more knowledgeable and comfortable with using PS. I did process the RAW file from scratch in LR using their new(ish) auto denoise feature. I don't really like using it, as it takes forever to process on my computer. I was wondering if it might do a better job than Topaz in this instance. Here is the result. Yes, they are slightly different in cropping and tone, as I didn't take the time to try and match the two, but rather just tried to make the best of the image.

Here it is:

The original Topaz processed full image for easy comparison:

And here's a closeup of the original Topaz processed image:

And a similar closeup of the LR processed image:

 

[Clovishound]

And just for comparison, here is another image from the same session when the light was brighter. The clouds thinned a bit for a while, and I was using a lower SS. This one was shot at ISO 2500 and 1/3000 sec. And yes, he's sticking his tongue out at me.

I'm beginning to think that some of the reservations I have are actually just the look of the small feather on the neck and breast of the bird. I have noticed this same look on the small feathers of warblers. Having said that, I do see a better, more detailed look to this lower ISO image. My plan is to try and get over to Cypress on a brighter day, either full sun, or preferably, a light overcast day. I will be interested in seeing the difference in an image in the 400-800 ISO range. That should be what I can get in full sun with a SS of 1/3000. I could even try a few at around 1/2000 for a half stop lower ISO.

And a closeup of the bird: