Processing Your Wildlife Photos
Leverage raw processing and use selection masks for better results
I went out to the local nature center yesterday. I didn’t expect to see much in the afternoon, but hey, I was trying out the OM System 100-400mm f/5-6.3 IS II lens again. So there I am, afternoon sun and lots of red-winged blackbirds. I’m shooting the OM-1 Mark II with the aforementioned lens, using the custom camera settings I published earlier this year:
Birding with the OM-1 Mark II
For nearly two years, I’ve been constantly working to understand how all of the features in the OM-1 cameras work, especially when it comes to wildlife photography. Earlier this year, I decided to start documenting my settings to share with others. I’m super excited to announce that I’ve finally completed my first-ever guide to OM System cameras,
I get back home, download the shots, and they really don’t look all that inspiring. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the image previews are always based on a JPEG with the camera settings applied. Most of the time, that’s far too much contrast, especially using the default OM-1 Camera Profiles.
Obviously, I shoot in RAW and process my photos, so I only really looked at this image from the perspective of focus and composition, plus I want to see that catchlight in the bird’s eye. Good enough, so let’s go into Lightroom to properly process this photo (video below):
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