Hairy: Before and After

Steve - the pose and messy beak are great in this photo but the background is downright odd looking. What was done to it aside from noise reduction? Also, there appears to be a bit of a halo around the head.

- Luke

Luke, thank you for your comment and for your close inspection of this image. Likely the best way to answer is to show you the original. So, here it is. The background was an overcast sky and many, many branches and trees. Post processing included initial noise reduction to the whole image using Neat Image followed by sharpening (to bird and perch only) and finally, more noise reduction, this time to the background only using Dfine. In between all this I tuned the exposure too. Now, regarding the halo. I think I see it....but I'm not sure! Anyway, it does bring up the topic of what magnification to use in inspecting these images. If we magnify too much then we may be too timid about post processing. 1:1 zoom seems to be the standard in several programs. However, there is some discussion that it's too much. I note that many photographers posting here consistently do not supply a large version image. In the case of this image, for example, I don't know whether I should try to eliminate the halo or not....a complication is that I'm not sure I can distinguish halo from bird! I hope some comments will address this "scale of scrutiny" issue. Thanks again, Luke!

After seeing the original, honestly all I think it needs is sharpening and maybe trying to tone down the really hot spot on the neck otherwise it looks great (better than the initial post which has too much contrast and that odd BG).

Nice head turn from this guy Steve, I'd like to see more room on the right and less on the left. The bg does look strange to me, maybe too much noise reduction there.

Nice, Steve. I find the bg odd, as well, but I happen to think it's cool looking. Looking at your high iso posts from the 7D, I think you might want to try backing off a little to save yourself some post processing-unless you're still just experimenting-in which case go ahead. You shouldn't need a 1/1250 shutter speed unless the woodpecker is in action.

Hello Steve. I do not like the posted image at all. That bg messes with me. I do, however like the original. If this were mine, I would just select the bg, and apply Neat Image to it, and maybe try some sharpening on the bird and tree.

Steve, the original is much better than the initial post IMO. The bird and perch need a little sharpening but that is it IMO. As far as ISO goes, I agree with some others. I would back off to ISO 500 and try and shoot there for a while and see how much cleaner your images are. 1/500s should be good for this scene and you could get that at a much lower ISO. Just some suggestions.

Thank you all for your comments. I know it takes time to examine an image and to express your opinion, especially when you are doing it in such a constructive way. I think all of you are encouraging me to use more camera power and less computer power. I agree with that approach. Implementing it is what is difficult. These days here the exposure time set by the camera can vary wildly (at fixed aperture) as the lighting conditions outside change within a few minutes. I have a nice collection of blurry images at iso 800 because exposure time was too long when a bird appeared for only a moment. If I error on the side of high ISO, at least I obtain an image that can possibly be redeemed by post-processing. I was quite encouraged by the quality of this image after processing. Many of you didn’t like the background [note that at least two of us think it is "cool" though!] . However, only Luke mentioned high contrast and a possible halo. I suspect that the main mistake I made this time was attempting to obtain the very smooth look present in many low ISO images. I should have been satisfied with a slightly higher noise level. Also, as a strategy, some of you have mentioned in the past that you take some high ISO images as insurance before lowering ISO to obtain better quality. I think I’m heading in that direction also. To be continued. Thank you all again.
P.S.: Regarding Nate's comment about composition: it would center the bird more. This returns us to the question of the desirability of centering in composition again!