Processing a bird pic

[Shelley]

I shoot my bird pics in raw mode and then I covert to jpeg. I have noticed lately that some of my birds pics are getting a halo around them. I do like to lighten some of areas under the wings to show the detail, so obviously I am doing something wrong when trying to lighten. I don't think I am heavy handed when lightening.

My latest pic of the Osprey which I really like is a good example of what I am talking about. I had this pic printed and it is darker than what is on my screen. I really want to get this pic correct, as I have a couple of other special Osprey shots that are just as good. I can go back and recapture this bird, if I need to.

Does noise removal effect this? I use neat image...free version
Shadow and Highlight slider in DDP do this?
Does Shadow and Highlight sliders in CS2 cause this.

Or is it my technique of high pass sharpening (which i thought was the best process - i find with the 400 lens, i apply very little sharpening 0.5 usually or sometimes 1).

Can anyone help me? Its interesting that I starting experiencing this when i starting using the 400 lens.

[swifty]

I believe it may be a combination of both your use of highlight/shadows and highpass filter sharpening.
Just to exaggerate the effect, go into highlight/shadows and slide both the highlight and shadow amount to 100% and you should see a fair amount of halo. I generally avoid this feature cos I personally feel it often results in a badly done HDR type effect and if I use it, I will usually only use 2-3% in the shadows.

I sometimes use highpass filter sharpening too but don't often see the effect at settings around 0.7 radius (in the same ballpark as what u use) and overlay blend mode. But if it is too much, either step back the radius setting or reduce the opacity of the sharpening layer a little. I'm no expert on sharpening and the more I read about it, the more I realise it is a tricky area of PP. I've read recently that many 'experts' are advocating several sharpening steps, both localised and generalised along the way during PP and sharpening is also output specific, ie. settings for web differ to settings for print.

[Shelley]

Thanks Swifty.

I will look at what you said. I wish i did not need to process, but to get that little bit extra out of your pic - you need to.

:food04:

[Seesee]

I have been using almost always the "Smart Sharpen " option in CS3 nowadays and with a bit of practice and tinkering the results are much more manageable to avoid halos and the like.

[DAdeGroot]

Also if your print is darker (or lighter) than your screen image, you need to calibrate your monitor (and ensure you're using a calibrated print service). With a properly calibrated workflow, the print should have the same colour and brightness as what you see on screen.

[Allann]

I find that the halos appear most during the highlight/shadow phase of PP, when your working with the image zoom to 100% or more on an edge and do some of the general shadow work and keep increasing the slider until you see the halos, that will tell you the max figure you can use, then dial it back a bit. Hope that helps a little.
Totally agree with David, everyone should get their screen calibrated especially when you want to do prints.

[swifty]

With regards to prints being too dark, +1 for the monitor calibration but I remember reading something at luminous landscape that also might help explain the problem.
http://luminous-landscape.com/reviews/two-displays.shtml
scroll down to the Prints too dark bit.

[Shelley]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to share your thoughts and ideas.

Darksome - i really appreciate what you have posted. I am going away for the weekend, but when I get back I will have a good read. Then I will try what you are saying on the Osprey shot - i might post it again for look and see. :) It makes sense what you have explained.

Thanks again to everyone.