Birds A few bird images - learning Lightroom Classic

[Only RF]

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

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.

Linear Camera Profiles: A Critical Look

A critical look at linear camera profiles – do they really come with all the benefits that some articles and videos claim?

www.alex-kunz.com

 

[Archibald]

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

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.

 

[Only RF]

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

• Canon EOS R7
• RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
• 123.0 mm
• ƒ/7.1
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 800

Adobe Neutral

• Canon EOS R7
• RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
• 123.0 mm
• ƒ/7.1
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 800

 

[koenkooi]

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?

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.

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.

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.

 

[Archibald]

@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).