Before And After; Redux

Final edited image. (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 300mm f/4 PRO lens; 1/1600th sec. @ f/8; ISO 400

This is another post in the series that has been requested by some readers.  That request was for me to explain how I edit some of my images.  You can find a previous post on this topic here.

This is the original RAW file straight out of the camera. (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 300mm f/4 PRO lens; 1/1600th sec. @ f/8; ISO 400

My friends and I were searching for raptors to photograph.  We were driving the "loop" road around Historic Jamestowne Island, the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America.  There are lots of raptors to be found—Bald Eagles, ospreys and owls—if you keep a keen eye.  My two friends had driven ahead of me on this one-way narrow paved roadway.  As I was searching the trees above, I spotted this beautiful specimen high in a pine tree.  I stopped, grabbed my Olympus with the 300mm f/4 PRO lens attached, got out slowly and deliberately, braced myself against my vehicle and made about 50 images as the bird moved its head, opened and closed its mouth, rubbed its beak on the branch in front of it and moved to another branch.  This particular image is my favorite as the bird is looking straight down at me.  I would say I had my camera and lens pointed up at about a 75 degree angle.  In other words, the eagle was almost straight overhead.

I purposely underexposed the image as the detail in white head feathers can easily be lost due to overexposure.  To me, I'd much rather underexpose a Bald Eagle and not risk blowing out the highlights consisting of the namesake white feathers on its head and tail than use a proper "expose to the right" exposure.

The second image is the RAW file straight out of the camera.  From there I performed the following edits.

First, the exposure slider was moved to add 1.40 additional stops of light.  Before I do anything else, I want to be able to clearly see everything in the file so I normally adjust exposure first.

Second, I decided how I would crop the image.  I don't like to cut off things halfway in the corners or edges, but with the pine cones and branches, it was either cut a minimal amount off or do extensive cloning or content-aware fill in Photoshop.  I compromised and cut a few off but left the ones in the corners fully revealed.  I also wanted to place the eagle at one of the intersections of the "Rule of Thirds" points to make the final crop visually appealing.  Where I finally placed its head was the most pleasing to me as your compositions should be to you.  Your vision may vary.  The diagonal of the eagle from bottom left to top right was also a nice offset of the diagonal of the larger branch that goes the opposite direction.  In this case, the final crop turned out to be a 3.5mp image from the original 20mp file.  Eagles don't necessarily let you get close!

White Balance was cooled down a bit.  As shot was 5650k + 7 magenta.  My final white balance is 4891k + 2 magenta.  The head looked a little too warm in the original, as shot, white balance.

Contrast was increased to +24.  A straight linear rendition was too flat to me.

Highlights were reduced to -66 to bring a bit more texture out in the white feathers.

Shadow detail was increased to +22 to bring out some of the underbelly of the eagle.  Remember the sun, not directly overhead, was high in the sky and the underside of the eagle was quite dark.

The Whites slider was reduced slightly to -11, again to hold detail in the white feathers.

The Blacks slider was left alone.

Texture was added to bring out some additional detail in the feathers.  +79.  I like this new texture slider!

Clarity, which I would have added in the past in this case instead of texture, was left alone as it not only gives more texture to the mid-tone details, but it also increases the contrast over too large an area which would darken the brown feathers in this case.

Dehaze could be used to darken the blue sky, but it, also, increases the contrast and darkens too many of the details in the image.

Vibrance was increased to +26 to give the colors just a little more kick without being gaudy.

Saturation was left alone.

In the HSL Panel in Lightroom...

No Hue sliders were moved.  Even though I don't particularly like Olympus' rendition of a pure blue sky, I left them alone.

The Yellow Saturation slider was increased as the beak and feet were looking pretty pale with the backlighting.  I wanted to make them more noticeable.  I increased it to +43.

The Magenta and Purple Saturation sliders were moved over to -100 as Olympus tends to have too much magenta (sometimes purple affects it also) in the blue skies.

The Luminance of the yellow was reduced, again, as I wanted the feet and beak to be a bit darker and more noticeable.

The Blue luminance slider was raised to +25 as I felt the blue sky now was too dark and needed lightened.

In the Detail Panel, Sharpening Amount was raised to +45, which is pretty much my standard for my Olympus files.

The Detail slider was raised to +50.

The Masking slider was raised to +69 so none of the sky was affected by sharpening.  All that does is add texture to a blue sky that should have none.

I added +10 to the Luminance Noise.  Just a little noise was visible in the shadows.

Now is where I get into how I "finesse" an image to my own liking.  I use the brush and gradient tools to make specific changes.

I used the Brush Tool on both eyes.  In my way of thinking, if you don't have the eye in sharp focus, the image doesn't work.  Not only do I want the eyes in focus, I want your attention focusing on them initially.  So, using the brush tool, I do two things.  I highlight the eyes, increase their brightness just a little to draw attention, then I add some saturation so the yellow can be seen more easily.  This was especially important in this image as the eagle is looking straight down an no sunlight is falling on the eyes.

I used the Gradient Tool to cover the entire frame and then used the Range Mask to select the blue of the sky.  I then reduced its texture to -100 so the sky is smooth, noiseless and without any texture—as it should be.

I also used the Brush Tool to increase the luminance of the brown feathers on the bird's underside, which are in shadow as well as the white feathers of the neck.  Two separate adjustments.  One for each area.  The neck feathers still looked very yellow so I also changed the blue/yellow white balance slider toward the blue to whiten them slightly, but not artificially.  The bird's underside brown feathers tips' looked too yellow/orange so I slightly reduced the saturation on those.

That is about it.  I like the finished image.  Quite different from the straight out of the camera file.  But editing your images is what it takes to accomplish what you envisioned when you made the image and to present your work in the best possible form.

If you have any questions about any of this, I'll be happy to share anything I know with anyone who I can help.

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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