Before / After Grizzly with Topaz Photo AI

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vpchic

vpchic

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The hours I've put into this image LOL. I'm so excited to be here on this forum. Steve's book on Mirrorless Autofocus really really helped and now reading past threads on this forum, just wow! So I'd love some feedback - posting original photo and then cropped & processed with LRC + Topaz Photo AI. It's one of my favourite photos ever taken and was on our 25th wedding anniversary trip to Alaska & back this past month.

I do have a tendency to overprocess. When I first process an image, I like it then sometimes look at it a day later and think oops, I went overboard. I'm interested in feedback on the original (resized for forum) and the "final" which may not be final depending on y'all's suggestions :)

Nikon Z9 - Nikkor Z 70-200 f/2.8 (1/500 f/5.6 ISO 100 200mm)
Because of the tight crop and I'd like to print for myself, I opted for 2x Upscale in Topaz.

Amberlee
"newbie"
silver tip grizzly before (1 of 1)-2.jpg
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silver tip grizzly after (1 of 1).jpg
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I don't see anything wrong with your original or your processed images. Some things you may choose to play with could be a 16X9 crop extending more to the right to include the wildflowers to the right or perhaps open the crop up just a bit to include more "time and place" environment. However, the wider crops and more environment included is just my "style" and there is nothing saying one or the other is right.

I would ask what do you think are the strengths and opportunities for your processed image? Overall, I like it, the image is a nice capture of a brown bear.
 
I think it's a good result for given the huge amount of crop. Only further idea I'd have would be to mask the shadows and raise their brightness a bit more, maybe with curve tool and the refine saturation slider. Trying to get some detail in the fur if there is any to give in the raw file.
 
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bleirer said:
I think it's a good result for given the huge amount of crop. Only further idea I'd have would be to mask the shadows and raise their brightness a bit more, maybe with curve tool and the refine saturation slider. Trying to get some detail in the fur if there is any to give in the raw file.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I just played around with that but unfortunately the shadows on the bear from the shading has resulted in the brown color loss. When I mask and play with sliders, I found it to bring me too much greys and not enough browns darnit.
 
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jeffnles1 said:
I don't see anything wrong with your original or your processed images. Some things you may choose to play with could be a 16X9 crop extending more to the right to include the wildflowers to the right or perhaps open the crop up just a bit to include more "time and place" environment. However, the wider crops and more environment included is just my "style" and there is nothing saying one or the other is right.

I would ask what do you think are the strengths and opportunities for your processed image? Overall, I like it, the image is a nice capture of a brown bear.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I really like this kind of feedback. I sometimes focus too much on the "portrait" just in general I think my excitement of wildlife. How's this? Honestly the strengths and opportunities are that it's one of my personal bests and I will have great pleasure in printing my very first photo after 3 years of "working at it" LOL.

silver tip grizzly 16x9 (1 of 1)-2.jpg
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Some things to experiment with before you print. I realize these aren’t exactly what you saw but might enhance the impact of the print. Especially since the subject is farther away. Also good Lightroom learning.
Lightroom AI masking of the eye and application of their preset Enhance IRIS.

Two alternatives to draw the eyes to the bear:
Lightroom vignette slider
Lightroom oval mask to soften the edges background corners.

It’s all personal so do what you think is best for your print.
 
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BarkingBeansCoffee said:
Some things to experiment with before you print. I realize these aren’t exactly what you saw but might enhance the impact of the print. Especially since the subject is farther away. Also good Lightroom learning.
Lightroom AI masking of the eye and application of their preset Enhance IRIS.

Two alternatives to draw the eyes to the bear:
Lightroom vignette slider
Lightroom oval mask to soften the edges background corners.

It’s all personal so do what you think is best for your print.
Click to expand...
Oh boy - another rabbit hole (grin). Gotta say I'm learning A LOT!
 
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vpchic said:
Thank you! I really like this kind of feedback. I sometimes focus too much on the "portrait" just in general I think my excitement of wildlife. How's this? Honestly the strengths and opportunities are that it's one of my personal bests and I will have great pleasure in printing my very first photo after 3 years of "working at it" LOL.

View attachment 66281
Click to expand...
I like the 16X9 (or wide vs high) crop. While it is what the bear was eating and totally natural, you may want to see what it looks like with the leaves hanging out of his mouth cloned out. I'm going back and forth on this. On one hand, it shows what this beautiful creature was eating (they don't roam the forest looking for tourists to devour or sheep to terrorize, they eat vegetation for much of their diet). But on the other hand, it is a tiny bright spot right on the bear's face and it tends to draw my eye away from his (or her) eyes.

I tend to be a realist with my nature photography and usually allow the scene and the creatures to tell the story. However, there are times when a small touch with the clone brush can clean up something. Contests don't like that but you said you're printing it for your own use or maybe for sale in either case, I can see why. It is a nice photo.

Ps. I like the way the wildflowers frame the bottom part of the photo.

Jeff
 
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jeffnles1 said:
I like the 16X9 (or wide vs high) crop. While it is what the bear was eating and totally natural, you may want to see what it looks like with the leaves hanging out of his mouth cloned out. I'm going back and forth on this. On one hand, it shows what this beautiful creature was eating (they don't roam the forest looking for tourists to devour or sheep to terrorize, they eat vegetation for much of their diet). But on the other hand, it is a tiny bright spot right on the bear's face and it tends to draw my eye away from his (or her) eyes.

I tend to be a realist with my nature photography and usually allow the scene and the creatures to tell the story. However, there are times when a small touch with the clone brush can clean up something. Contests don't like that but you said you're printing it for your own use or maybe for sale in either case, I can see why. It is a nice photo.

Ps. I like the way the wildflowers frame the bottom part of the photo.

Jeff
Click to expand...
Yes that's a great thought - I have considered that a touch distracting. At my skill level, I find that part of the mouth/muzzle to be a bit challenging to clone/heal. Likely need to increase some skills here :) There's quite a bit of blur in the lower left of the jaw. Thank you for the input - I am so appreciative of this forum.

OK - when I actually edited in photoshop, I found the clone tool a little easier to use there. May just be that I have a lot more experience in PS. Not bad at all I think. Reduced the green tint at the mouth with masking and I quite like it.

silver tip grizzly crop vignette clone (1 of 1).jpg
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vpchic said:
Yes that's a great thought - I have considered that a touch distracting. At my skill level, I find that part of the mouth/muzzle to be a bit challenging to clone/heal. Likely need to increase some skills here :) There's quite a bit of blur in the lower left of the jaw. Thank you for the input - I am so appreciative of this forum.

OK - when I actually edited in photoshop, I found the clone tool a little easier to use there. May just be that I have a lot more experience in PS. Not bad at all I think. Reduced the green tint at the mouth with masking and I quite like it.

View attachment 66285
Click to expand...
[edited - I changed my mind]
I started saying I liked the leaves gone better but after thinking more and seeing the photo again, I think I like the leaves there better. Maybe just use your dodge or darken brush to darken them just a little bit so it's not as bright. The more I think about it the more I think showing what this beauty was eating does tell an important part of the story of this bear's survival.

At any rate, it is what you like best and you have a good photo to start with.
Jeff
 
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Last one is best. Great shot! But definitely keep the leaf in its mouth there, it adds so much to the photo! Clockwise rotation is a good idea. I might also try a vertical photo, with the bear at the top of the hill, and wildflowers in the foreground.
 
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vpchic said:
The hours I've put into this image LOL. I'm so excited to be here on this forum. Steve's book on Mirrorless Autofocus really really helped and now reading past threads on this forum, just wow! So I'd love some feedback - posting original photo and then cropped & processed with LRC + Topaz Photo AI. It's one of my favourite photos ever taken and was on our 25th wedding anniversary trip to Alaska & back this past month.

I do have a tendency to overprocess. When I first process an image, I like it then sometimes look at it a day later and think oops, I went overboard. I'm interested in feedback on the original (resized for forum) and the "final" which may not be final depending on y'all's suggestions :)

Nikon Z9 - Nikkor Z 70-200 f/2.8 (1/500 f/5.6 ISO 100 200mm)
Because of the tight crop and I'd like to print for myself, I opted for 2x Upscale in Topaz.

Amberlee
"newbie"View attachment 66271View attachment 66272
Click to expand...
I'd make the WB "cloudy" to warm the image - nice shot
 
vpchic said:
Thank you! I just played around with that but unfortunately the shadows on the bear from the shading has resulted in the brown color loss. When I mask and play with sliders, I found it to bring me too much greys and not enough browns darnit.
Click to expand...

If using Lightroom that's where the refine saturation slider helps. The browns going grey is reduced saturation, going toward neutral. Another approach is in the color panel, you can click on the fur and have independent control of hue, saturation, and brightness. Or even finer control in Photoshop with an hsl adjustment layer and a mask.
 
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bleirer said:
If using Lightroom that's where the refine saturation slider helps. The browns going grey is reduced saturation, going toward neutral. Another approach is in the color panel, you can click on the fur and have independent control of hue, saturation, and brightness. Or even finer control in Photoshop with an hsl adjustment layer and a mask.
Click to expand...
PHEW! OK - more Lightroom Tutorials coming up. LOL Thanks again everyone, It is really an amazing learning curve and much helped by specific things within an image that I can practice. Know twice as much about LRC today as I did yesterday so that's progress :)
 
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Thank you, Butlerkid, I have taken way too much time off of things since my wife passed.

I went to Portugal a few weeks ago and did about half of the things I intended to do.

Still it was cathartic and I am getting back into things now. This is one of those things I really missed.
 
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Final Edit :) Thanks to the team here!!! Likely some things could have been improved with stronger lightroom skills but wow, have I learned a lot already!
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