Kooka through the mist

[Ironwood]

Sounds like John was hoping for more Kooka shots, so I couldn't resist grabbing the camera out of the dry cabinet, and going out on the verandah when I saw this fella and his mate on the power line out the window.
Unfortunately, the lens fogged up when I walked outside because of the wet and humid weather ( thanks to the ex-cyclone coming in just north of us ) I only got this one shot before they took off.


This is what I got with some levels adjustments. You might be able to see the raindrops.

[Grumpy John]

Bit like a sauna up there at the moment is it Brad?
Nice shot considering the circumstances, he's even facing the right way fo 61% of the people. See I did watch the video

[Ironwood]

It’s actually pretty nice John, the rain today has bought the temps right down.
I think the lens glass got a bit of a shock going from 22C and 35% RH of the drybox, to 30C and 90% RH on the verandah.

[Ironwood]

Oh, I forgot to mention that it’s good to see you took notes when you watched that video

[Ironwood]

I tried to do a bit more to this image in Affinity Photo, just to see what it could do.
Started with the original file, haze removal, some sharpening, and noise reduction.
It seems to have sharpened the detail on most of the bird, but the feathers on top of its head are blown. Maybe a lighter touch would have been better.

[Ironwood]

I had a look at some of them a while back, they seemed a bit dodgy, so I gave them a miss.

[Ironwood]

Yes it definitely wasn’t a good image from the start, but I find it interesting playing around to see how I can improve.

[Grumpy John]

For a while Adobe were offering free versions of CS2, looks like that is no longer the case.

[Isac]

You've done well with the edit Ironwood, good work.

[Ironwood]

Thanks Isac.

[Isac]

I had a play in Affinity and the blown part of the head is an easy fix by copying a section of the body to a new layer and moving it to the blown part. Turn it as needed to set the feathers in the same direction as the head and set the blend mode to "Multiply". Clean up the edges with a soft eraser and decrease the opacity if needed. This works for a lot of blown sections of birds and other things that are blown also.