Pileated Woodpecker

[paulvanharte]

Drove around a bit a spotted this woodpecker. No sharpening applied, only contrast and clarity. Shot at 200 iso.

Paul

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_D716034 by paulvanharte, on Flickr

 

[kodiak]

•
This is a very amusing take because it is so unusual!
…and the red is really striking! Cool composition too!
I deplore, however, the too heavy pp cooking, noticeable
around the porcelain metal post!

 

[Randy]

cool shot, great and unusual angle, too much saturation on the red and I would clone out the wire
I think the PPing looks fine, you have backed off sharpening and it looks good

 

[paulvanharte]

Thanks guys, not sure what you mean by" heavyy pp cooking" but here is the unedited version, raw to jpeg is the only editing done.
Paul

_D716034_2 by paulvanharte, on Flickr

 

[BillM]

This version is much nicer. The red crest looks more natural than #1 above.

 

[kodiak]

Hi Paul,
Thank you for posting the unedited version, this way I can
better explain " heavy pp cooking"!

ALL digital takes MUST be PPed in order to be presented.
However, knowing where or when to stop is the grail here.

Let's compare the two versions:

This version is much nicer. The red crest looks more natural than #1 above.

Bloody well right! … this just came in as I was typing these lines.

The first v. has the red crest so saturated that details are burnt!
The second is far less saturated and lots of details may be seen.

The first v. has too much contrast, the second not enough BUT
if you choose the enhance the micro contrast via clarity then
only locally. Why do apply contrast to the whole scene, including
the sky, when there are no details there to pull contrast from?

What about the halo around the porcelain metal post?

The pole itself, in v.2 is almost grey (WB?) but in v.1 it's blueish!!!

I could go on for a while…

Don't get me wrong, I do believe you got a great shot right there…
what you did with it was just "too heavy pp cooking"! And yet, this
is not a big issue since you're shooting RAW.

 

[paulvanharte]

Thanks for the explanations. I really appreciate any constructive feedback, after all thats how we learn. I admit that eventhough I use Photoshop I tend to apply any editing to the whole shot. I guess I will have to learn how to use Photoshop better than how I use it currently .
Thanks again for the detailed explanation.
Paul

 

[Richard Jones]

Compositionally it is a very interesting shot and that alone gives it much value. The previous comment about cloning out the wire is I think a valid option, but I would do it as a copy version and would clone out the insulator and bracket as well. The original shot is quite thought provoking and well captured, all it needs now is a killer caption.