Birds A few bird images - learning Lightroom Classic

After working on learning my way around the controls and setup on my R7, I am now starting to learn to process the C-Raw captures using Adobe Lightroom Classic.
I am starting off simple and then using each image to experiment with various options (color profiles, cropping, masks etc.) to get to a better image that most authentically represents the birds as I see them. The following images were taken around my local area (Savannah, Georgia, USA) in December-January 2023/4



The Wood Stork was at extreme range (230 feet or so) for my 100-400mm, so is heavily cropped. I did no sharpening, just added to vibrance and also masked an decrease the exposure on the bird to bring out some feather detail. This was my first attempt.



With this Sanderling, the weather was overcast and so the light was quite flat. I used my homemade skimmer pod (a small frying pan with the handle removed and a small ball-head added!) to get down as low as I could. Used content-aware removal to clean up some flying sand particles. Raised the exposure on the bird and gave a touch of saturation and vibrance, as well as some sharpening. Linear gradient filters at top and bottom decrease the lighting in the foreground and sky to draw the viewers eye more to the subject. Composed with bird to the right (rule of thirds grid) to allow some space in front of it.


This Brown-headed Nuthatch was skittering around with several others in a tree along my trail. The canopy, plus the background sky made for an interesting exposure setting. For processing this image, I was grateful for Simon D'Entremont's video on Lightroom workflow (https://youtu.be/F76o4qLyNVw?si=UXcz7SenGxhkR2rW) for editing birds. There was a large twig going across the bottom of the branch as well as some stray pine needles on the right margin of the sky. After battling with the LRC remove tools unsuccessfully, I ended up going to Photoshop to remove them - much easier!
This image also required brightening the eye, raising the color temp to bring out the coloration on the breast and head, adjustments to bring out feather detail etc.

I am really just starting out, and just fFINDING where the controls are to achieve what I visualize is a very time-consuming process. However, I believe it is beginning to pay off!

Thanks for looking!!!

Great pics, Ian! You work LRC like a pro. It took me years to learn it.

Have you tried pulling down Highlights to improve white feather areas? It works pretty good in my experience.

Archibald said:

Great pics, Ian! You work LRC like a pro. It took me years to learn it.

Have you tried pulling down Highlights to improve white feather areas? It works pretty good in my experience.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try.

Looks good. Have you tried the Auto button yet? Adobe calls it Sensei which AO based. It was trained on thousands of professional edits and does a lot of ground work in the Basic panel. That incudes auto adjusting the highlights and whites like Archibald suggested. Not everyone likes it but it provides a start.

You may want to try this as well after you try the Auto feature. For the Sanderling start from the beginning and set the profile to Neutral which will make it look very flat. Then apply Auto. Then add some blacks by moving the black slider left a bit and the contrast slider to the right.

Compare all 3 which includes Archibald's suggestion and look the detail in the white areas of the bird.

Woodbadger said:

After working on learning my way around the controls and setup on my R7, I am now starting to learn to process the C-Raw captures using Adobe Lightroom Classic.
I am starting off simple and then using each image to experiment with various options (color profiles, cropping, masks etc.) to get to a better image that most authentically represents the birds as I see them. The following images were taken around my local area (Savannah, Georgia, USA) in December-January 2023/4

View attachment 24198

The Wood Stork was at extreme range (230 feet or so) for my 100-400mm, so is heavily cropped. I did no sharpening, just added to vibrance and also masked an decrease the exposure on the bird to bring out some feather detail. This was my first attempt.

View attachment 24199

With this Sanderling, the weather was overcast and so the light was quite flat. I used my homemade skimmer pod (a small frying pan with the handle removed and a small ball-head added!) to get down as low as I could. Used content-aware removal to clean up some flying sand particles. Raised the exposure on the bird and gave a touch of saturation and vibrance, as well as some sharpening. Linear gradient filters at top and bottom decrease the lighting in the foreground and sky to draw the viewers eye more to the subject. Composed with bird to the right (rule of thirds grid) to allow some space in front of it.

View attachment 24200
This Brown-headed Nuthatch was skittering around with several others in a tree along my trail. The canopy, plus the background sky made for an interesting exposure setting. For processing this image, I was grateful for Simon D'Entremont's video on Lightroom workflow (https://youtu.be/F76o4qLyNVw?si=UXcz7SenGxhkR2rW) for editing birds. There was a large twig going across the bottom of the branch as well as some stray pine needles on the right margin of the sky. After battling with the LRC remove tools unsuccessfully, I ended up going to Photoshop to remove them - much easier!
This image also required brightening the eye, raising the color temp to bring out the coloration on the breast and head, adjustments to bring out feather detail etc.

I am really just starting out, and just fFINDING where the controls are to achieve what I visualize is a very time-consuming process. However, I believe it is beginning to pay off!

Thanks for looking!!!

Click to expand...

Hi Ian,

Looks to me like you're off to a great start, with three excellent images - well processed. (I enjoy Simon's content too!).

Everyone will have their own workflow - and if they're happy with the outcomes, it's the right one (for them), so you're doing the right thing by trying different tools and techniques and deciding which ones take your images to where you want them to go. For me, it's been a continual (and fun!) learning curve.

I'm not sure what level you're at with LrC, but a couple of general LrC tips from me if I may - firstly, regardless of which Module you're in, pressing 'Command' (Ctrl for Windows) and '/' will bring up a list of all the keyboard shortcuts available in that Module (click on the list to remove it!).

Secondly, get to know the Histogram - in the Develop Module clicking on the 'up' arrows will indicate any clipping on your image itself (blue - shadows/ red - highlights). I try to avoid clipping the highlights, but some degree of shadow clipping is fine (for my tastes). Hover your mouse on the histogram to see the zones (Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks), hold down the left mouse button and you can drag these left and right - and watch as the corresponding values in the basic panel are also changed. (A different way to look at and evaluate data - not necessarily a recommended workflow!). Note, any colours shown on the histogram represent the RGB colour channels so, for example a blue colour shown in the shadow clipping arrow indicates clipping in the blue channel.

Thirdly, when adjusting the Whites/ Blacks, or the Masking in Sharpening, hold down the Option key (Alt for Windows) and as you make your adjustments you'll see handy visual aids (clipping for whites/ blacks and the parts of the image touched by any sharpening you've applied with the masking).



Finally - and importantly - 'Command' + 'Z' = Undo and, if things have spiralled completely out of control, there's always 'Reset'. Above all 'Don't Panic'...

Some LrC tips and tricks can be found on RF Shooters Here and some YouTube tutorial/ inspiration recommendations are listed Here.

Phil

PKM-UK said:

Hi Ian,

Looks to me like you're off to a great start, with three excellent images - well processed. (I enjoy Simon's content too!).

Everyone will have their own workflow - and if they're happy with the outcomes, it's the right one (for them), so you're doing the right thing by trying different tools and techniques and deciding which ones take your images to where you want them to go. For me, it's been a continual (and fun!) learning curve.

I'm not sure what level you're at with LrC, but a couple of general LrC tips from me if I may - firstly, regardless of which Module you're in, pressing 'Command' (Ctrl for Windows) and '/' will bring up a list of all the keyboard shortcuts available in that Module (click on the list to remove it!).

Secondly, get to know the Histogram - in the Develop Module clicking on the 'up' arrows will indicate any clipping on your image itself (blue - shadows/ red - highlights). I try to avoid clipping the highlights, but some degree of shadow clipping is fine (for my tastes). Hover your mouse on the histogram to see the zones (Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks), hold down the left mouse button and you can drag these left and right - and watch as the corresponding values in the basic panel are also changed. (A different way to look at and evaluate data - not necessarily a recommended workflow!). Note, any colours shown on the histogram represent the RGB colour channels so, for example a blue colour shown in the shadow clipping arrow indicates clipping in the blue channel.

Thirdly, when adjusting the Whites/ Blacks, or the Masking in Sharpening, hold down the Option key (Alt for Windows) and as you make your adjustments you'll see handy visual aids (clipping for whites/ blacks and the parts of the image touched by any sharpening you've applied with the masking).

View attachment 24204

Finally - and importantly - 'Command' + 'Z' = Undo and, if things have spiralled completely out of control, there's always 'Reset'. Above all 'Don't Panic'...

Some LrC tips and tricks can be found on RF Shooters Here and some YouTube tutorial/ inspiration recommendations are listed Here.

Phil

Click to expand...

Phil,
Thanks so much for the insight and other info. These are very useful. I have bern working with LrC window on one monitor and a browser window on the keyboard shortcut help page from Adobe on the other!
I am going to try the other editing workflows suggested by others to see how they look, and try and adjust my workflow as I learn.

For now, I am going to concentrate on my bird images, since I am learning that workflow for other genres, e.g. landscapes, can be very different.

So glad to have this forum as a resource and soundingboard.

Woodbadger said:

Phil,
Thanks so much for the insight and other info. These are very useful. I have bern working with LrC window on one monitor and a browser window on the keyboard shortcut help page from Adobe on the other!
I am going to try the other editing workflows suggested by others to see how they look, and try and adjust my workflow as I learn.

For now, I am going to concentrate on my bird images, since I am learning that workflow for other genres, e.g. landscapes, can be very different.

So glad to have this forum as a resource and soundingboard.

Click to expand...

Hi Ian,

My pleasure - as you've already found there are plenty of helpful people on here who, like me, will try to offer some helpful advice where they can.

LrC is a wonderful piece of software - you're going have fun discovering its secrets...

Phil

Woodbadger said:

Thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try.

Click to expand...

Archibald,
Thanks for the suggestion. I had already pulled down the highlights quite a bit, but introducing a bit of contrast gave more feather detail. Thanks!

Only RF said:

Looks good. Have you tried the Auto button yet? Adobe calls it Sensei which AO based. It was trained on thousands of professional edits and does a lot of ground work in the Basic panel. That incudes auto adjusting the highlights and whites like Archibald suggested. Not everyone likes it but it provides a start.

You may want to try this as well after you try the Auto feature. For the Sanderling start from the beginning and set the profile to Neutral which will make it look very flat. Then apply Auto. Then add some blacks by moving the black slider left a bit and the contrast slider to the right.

Compare all 3 which includes Archibald's suggestion and look the detail in the white areas of the bird.

Click to expand...

Only RF,
I gave this a shot by making a virtual copy prior just subsequent to the cropping and prior to all other adjustments. To my eye the AUTO adjustments resulted in too much of a "golden" appearance for me. I have attached a screen shot of a reference compare (mine on the left, AUTO on the riught) to illustrate this. I tried your other suggestion and it did improve the feather detail - thanks

Woodbadger said:

After working on learning my way around the controls and setup on my R7, I am now starting to learn to process the C-Raw captures using Adobe Lightroom Classic.
I am starting off simple and then using each image to experiment with various options (color profiles, cropping, masks etc.) to get to a better image that most authentically represents the birds as I see them.[...]

Click to expand...

Since you mention colour profiles, have a look at the camera profiles from colorfidelity.com, they are really good at making LR match the colours you'd get if you were shooting jpeg. For birds that might not make a big difference, but on pictures taken with the M6II and R7 (same sensor) LR turns the skin tone of my kids to zombie grey, the CF profile turns that back into something closer to reality.

The colours in jpegs straight out of the camera and RAW+CF profiles are not how reality actually looks, but they are close enough and, more importantly, pleasing to my eye

Woodbadger said:

Only RF,
I gave this a shot by making a virtual copy prior just subsequent to the cropping and prior to all other adjustments. To my eye the AUTO adjustments resulted in too much of a "golden" appearance for me. I have attached a screen shot of a reference compare (mine on the left, AUTO on the riught) to illustrate this. I tried your other suggestion and it did improve the feather detail - thanksView attachment 24224

Click to expand...

Both either work or not for people. I tried linear profiles a while ago which I didn't like. I then came across this article. I also have used Color Fidelity profiles but when Canon got the R5 camera profiles running I started to use them again. As long as whatever you do or use is pleasing to your eye.

koenkooi said:

Since you mention colour profiles, have a look at the camera profiles from colorfidelity.com, they are really good at making LR match the colours you'd get if you were shooting jpeg. For birds that might not make a big difference, but on pictures taken with the M6II and R7 (same sensor) LR turns the skin tone of my kids to zombie grey, the CF profile turns that back into something closer to reality.

The colours in jpegs straight out of the camera and RAW+CF profiles are not how reality actually looks, but they are close enough and, more importantly, pleasing to my eye

Click to expand...

Hi, Koen. Colors are real important when doing portraits (of people). When I do portraits, I just adjust the white balance to suit. Sometimes I do that after selecting the subject. I sometimes use a reference photo to compare colors. How is colorfidelity better than this?

You mention zombie grey colors. Don't the colors depend on the Picture Style that you select in the camera? I believe LR reflects those choices on import. So does DPP.

If I'm mistaken or don't understand how colorfidelity is supposed to work, please clarify.

I like colour that pops for my wildlife shots as well. I used Canon profiles but when the R5 did not have them I used Color Fidelity. In that period of time I gravitated to Adobe Color. Then I came across Linear profiles and the link I attached which led me to a Neutral profile. As we all know and the article states that once an image is blown out it can't be saved. The cooked profiles like Adobe Color have aggressive curves (like other software does) to add pop which people generally want. However those aggressive curves come with a price. Not that a Neutral file will save a blown out file but just for correctly exposed file you will have more control over highlights, etc because you are not working against that aggressive cooked profile.

I used this as an example. One is Adobe Color and the other is Adobe Neutral. Look at my wife's forehead. It looks less blown out. Also every day I came back to look that it and kept leaning towards the Neutral profile in general. I have not been shooting much but in a few weeks there be smoke coming out of my cameras. I may change my mind when it comes to birding.

So it is not so much the colour or punch, etc. It is more about these little areas where details are better. Another example is white areas in birds. Again this is just me and will likely not work for most. I did not try Canon colours.

Adobe Color



Adobe Neutral

Archibald said:

Hi, Koen. Colors are real important when doing portraits (of people). When I do portraits, I just adjust the white balance to suit. Sometimes I do that after selecting the subject. I sometimes use a reference photo to compare colors. How is colorfidelity better than this?

Click to expand...

Colour is more than just white balance, you can't white balance the wrong tone or saturation. In the case of grey skintones, you'll go from zombie to jaundice when using white balance to fix the Adobe colours.

Archibald said:

You mention zombie grey colors. Don't the colors depend on the Picture Style that you select in the camera? I believe LR reflects those choices on import. So does DPP.

If I'm mistaken or don't understand how colorfidelity is supposed to work, please clarify.

Click to expand...

Adobe does nothing with the picture style set in the camera, it does its own thing. Pictures styles on affect in-camera JPEGs, the view on the LCD/EVF and when using DPP4, only if you've configured DPP4 to use the in-camera settings.
Adobe software, C1, DxO and others don't really do anything with it, when you're shooting RAW.

@koenkooi Yeah, I was mistaken. Agreed about picture styles. LR doesn't reflect those choices on import for RAW files.

As for adjusting skin tones, I don't understand why I can't white balance to any color I want (within limits).