Before/After: Little Blue Heron

I love doing these, and not because I’m such a good photographer or post-processor, but to show just how good graphic software has become. You do have to start with a good photo, but I’m often surprised at how many pictures I can “save” with software.

I took this yesterday morning. I was walking along the stream in early morning when I almost tripped over this little blue heron. Surprisingly, he didn’t immediately fly away. I was sort of “in the zone,” so maybe I was giving off a peaceful vibe. Whatever. He stayed, I took pictures, then I respectfully went back the way I came, giving him his space.

I’ll start with a crop of the original. Nothing done to it. Notice the incredible amount of noise. That’s because the stream, and the heron, were still in shadow. The sun hadn’t yet cleared the trees.

A few years ago, that would have alarmed me, but not now! I ran it through Topaz DeNoise. Notice the difference? It truly is amazing what that program can do. Look at the hair on the back of the head. Sharp and clear, and there is still feather detail.

I then took the photo into Luminar AI, where I did the basic processing. After that, I returned to Topaz to add detail and highlights. A beautiful result!