This isn't a portfolio kind of shot, but it made me happy. The prairie dogs at our local zoo have learned how to jump over their electric fence and they now leave their habitat, and then go back in when they want to. This one let me scratch him for a few minutes before he was on to better things. The original was landscape orientation, but the dog was centered, so I cropped tight on him to make it a little more interesting. This was shot at ISO 800 and there was a lot of noise, I did the most reduction I could without losing too much detail in the prairie dog. I might mess with it more this weekend.

Very cute. He let you scratch him

Yep...very cute.

Noise reduction can be done selectively. I rarely apply any NR to my main subject.

Originally Posted by Ric Grupe Yep...very cute. Noise reduction can be done selectively. I rarely apply any NR to my main subject.

Ah, Ric, thanks for the tip---my raw converter doesn't do selective NR, or at least I don't know about it. I'll have to look into it. I never really "read the manual," I just started working with it.

I assume something like Neat Image would allow selective NR? I never even thought about it. I had a decent shot of a mama cardinal yesterday, she was okay but everything around her was noisy. Applying NR in my raw converter software made her look very impressionistic, I didn't think I could save it. I threw it out.

Learn something every day!

Have a great weekend.

I like the pic a lot - good job on the cropping and NR.

It makes me happy too

Originally Posted by JustPlainMe Ah, Ric, thanks for the tip---my raw converter doesn't do selective NR, or at least I don't know about it. I'll have to look into it. I never really "read the manual," I just started working with it. I assume something like Neat Image would allow selective NR? I never even thought about it. I had a decent shot of a mama cardinal yesterday, she was okay but everything around her was noisy. Applying NR in my raw converter software made her look very impressionistic, I didn't think I could save it. I threw it out. Learn something every day! Have a great weekend.

What I do is to import the image in photoshop and create a layer mask containing only the subject.
Then I apply NR (noiseware) on the background layer and sharpen the subject layer.


Nice picture, btw.

Originally Posted by luisv What I do is to import the image in photoshop and create a layer mask containing only the subject. Then I apply NR (noiseware) on the background layer and sharpen the subject layer. Nice picture, btw.

Thanks! I have Photoshop, but no third party NR software. I might need to look into it at some point.

Originally Posted by JustPlainMe Thanks! I have Photoshop, but no third party NR software. I might need to look into it at some point.

I think you could just use Gaussian blur on the background (e.g. 2-4 pixels) instead of a 3rd party tool to remove the noise. Good luck!

Awesome. I love it, especially the composition. Great work!