Oly E-M1 @ 270mm, f/7.1, 1/400s, ISO-250.

Edited in darktable.

I’m new to photography and editing. I’m looking for advice on if this is a decent edit or should I have approached it differently? Most photos I see have more contrast, but if I push my blacks down anymore I’m afraid they’ll get crushed too much. Some already are with the current exposure. I don’t hate this edit personally, but I’d like it to look more “professional.” Any editing advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

  • afk_strats@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    3 months ago

    First of all, this is an incredible shot! Second, I think your edit is solid. I am posting my edit of your pic to show you my interpretation of what I would post. I’m not implying that I somehow corrected your work, rather went with my gut for what looks good to me.

    The biggest change is the crop and I chose it because I wanted to highlight the fine textures captured and make sure they’re viewable even on small phone screens.

    I pumped contrast and saturation to my liking. I pushed blacks up and whites down to make sure I wasn’t clipping. In doing so, I stared seeing a lot of color noise so corrected that. There was also chromatic abberation/fringing on the wings, which I removed.

    I also added sharpening. And a slight vignette to focus eyes to the center.

    Lightroom settings (easily reproducible in Darktable):

    Exposure  -.20 f
Highlights -34
Shadows -18
Whites -4
Blacks +41
Temp -4/100 (towards cool)
Tint -3/100 (towards green)
Vibrance +27
Saturation +37

Tonal Contrast 
Texture +10 (fine)
Clarity +15 (mid)
Dehaze   +30 (coarse)

Sharpening +33 
Color Noise Reduction +32

Vignette -29
Removed Chromatic Aberration

    163

    • KevinFRK@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      This is really interesting to compare and contrast with the original, each has its considerable virtues.

      This one has the bird really pop the moment you look at it, but then a realisation creeps up behind saying this looks a bit false, a bit like a model of a bird that you’ve lit and photoed in a studio, rather than a live bird out in the wild. In contrast, Tempus Fugit’s edit takes a little more time to appreciate, but then feels far more like a bird in its environment, with its colours more in tune with the background, and the wider crop helping with that.

      Now, magazine photos (or, as you say, scrolling on a phone) need that “pop”, they’ve so little time to keep you on the page.

      It’s the “in its environment” feel that I personally prefer for my bird photographs (if I did, e.g., portraits, my choices would be very different), and so I’ve not invested the effort in learning how to get birds to “pop”, but it’s very much a matter of taste and purpose. I still mess with global luminance, but that’s because I might know better than my camera a good light curve.

      In passing, I feel a little regret you didn’t have the RAW format form to play with (which might well be why your edits saw the colour noise).

    • Tempus Fugit@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      2 months ago

      I spent a bit more time editing this photo and this was my result. Thanks for your advice. I added more saturation, contrast, and got rid of the chromatic aberration.