Jon Allanson
December 2024 - Gannet Diving
About the Image(s)
Taken off the island of Noss, in the Shetland Isles of the north coast of Scotland, UK in June of this year. We went out one evening to photograph the gannets that nest on the cliffs of the island. Taken on my Fuji XT5 with 18-135mm lens at f11, 1/2000 sec, ISO 3200 with the electronic shutter at 10 frames a second. I took about 1500 images in about 90 minutes, of which I have about 6 that are worth using. Initially processed and de-noised in Lightroom, then in Photoshop, using NiK Color-Efex detail enhancement was applied to the bird to increase feather/tonal detail and then the final image was capped and selectively sharpened using High Pass.
4 comments posted
Isn't that the truth, six out of 1500 but hey, you got six!
Is High Pass a photoshop product? I think I've read you used this in the pass but I never asked. I like NIK Color-Efex detail too.
There is a "tail feather" or something in the middle of the top edge that could be erased. Not a big thing but distracted.
Love the intensity of this bird's dive. Nice capture. Posted: 12/12/2024 23:28:04
Is High Pass a photoshop product? I think I've read you used this in the pass but I never asked. I like NIK Color-Efex detail too.
There is a "tail feather" or something in the middle of the top edge that could be erased. Not a big thing but distracted.
Love the intensity of this bird's dive. Nice capture. Posted: 12/12/2024 23:28:04
High Pass is in the 'other' section of the filters drop down in PS. You create a new layer and apply High Pass radius up to about 4, then apply a blend usually overlay.
A technique I use most of the time is make the High pass layer radius 4, fill the layer mask with 50% grey, then paint the main subject in the mask with white before making the blend overlay. Painting inwith black will prevent any sharpening occurring.
If you invert the grey High Pass layer with a larger radius, it will make the image appear softer and can be used instead of Gaussian blur with the advantage that it does not bleed between elements. Posted: 12/14/2024 14:26:56
A technique I use most of the time is make the High pass layer radius 4, fill the layer mask with 50% grey, then paint the main subject in the mask with white before making the blend overlay. Painting inwith black will prevent any sharpening occurring.
If you invert the grey High Pass layer with a larger radius, it will make the image appear softer and can be used instead of Gaussian blur with the advantage that it does not bleed between elements. Posted: 12/14/2024 14:26:56
Beautiful capture. I just learned why I should have increased my ISO on my owl photo. I'm surprised to see the bit of feathers on top of the frame. Thank you Jon for the explanation of High Pass. Posted: 12/18/2024 18:50:41
The quality of the image is very good, sharp, color, etc. It's a good documentary shot, but not very exciting (in spite of the 1500 tries). Posted: 12/21/2024 18:48:11