CHALL- What would you do with this badly underexposed image?

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CHALL- What would you do with this badly underexposed image?

Post by Stany Buyle »

CHALLENGE - What would you do with this badly underexposed image?

Since the first day I walked around in nature with my camera I was pretty obsessed for capturing the kind of bird(not sure about the name) as you see in the picture. Even though they often "hang" above their prey for quite a bit of time, once you approach they are gone. Also I don't have the time to spend days while waiting for the bird to come, neither the equipment to capture them from very far away...
A couple of weeks ago though while spotting airplanes at the airport of Charleroi (Brussels South) I had the occasion to capture one with my D7000 + 70-200VRII+ 2xTCIII. I thought 400mm x 1.5 factor at 16Mp should do it, but I completely missed about exposure.

Image

Challenge: Download the original file from this URL and post process them to get the best out of it. Post the result and the way you achieved your result by indicating the different steps(in detail please).

Thanks in advance and kindest regards,

Stany
kindest regards,

Stany
I like better one good shot in a day than 10 bad ones in a second...
http://www.fotografie.cafe
James
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Re: What would you do with this badly underexposed image?

Post by James »

This looks like a great idea Stany, I am probably the world's worst post processor but I will give it a go this week!
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Re: What would you do with this badly underexposed image?

Post by DiederikVP »

My try... :)

Image
James
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Re: What would you do with this badly underexposed image?

Post by James »

I downloaded the NEF and had a play in Capture NX 2 - I am not the worst PPer in my house and family so I am sure that others will do better but...

For this one I decreased the overall contrast, changed the picture control to Neutral to get access to as much detail as possible.

I then sharpened using high pass sharpening in overlay mode and increased the saturation and exposure

Finally I cropped to a square format to lose some of the dead space and make the bird larger.

Image


Foe this one I exported it as a tiff having reset the contrast, sturation and exposure. I then pushed it through Silver FX Pro 2 - based on the antique plate (I think) preset I increased the contrast and structure and the brightness slightly to increase the detail on the wing.

I didn't crop as tightly because I thought it suited the feel of the image better this way
Image
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