A or B, which do you prefer (2 Viewers)

[MikeInPA]

Simple question A or B? I can't find a Poll option unfortunately.

Image A is Cropped to 1600x1200 and DeNoised.

Image B is Cropped, DeNoised exactly as option A but with a Gausian Blur and an S Curve added.

 

[antbird53]

A

 

[kb57]

A - image seems brighter, otherwise I can't see any significant difference in image quality between them

 

[Jonno52]

Undoubtedly A. It has more detail and "life".

 

[MikeInPA]

Many thanks people.

Must say not what I expected. Maybe I overdid the Gaussian Blur a tad too much. I‘ll see if anyone else responds then maybe try one with less blur.

Thanks again.

 

[David_]

also prefer A. B loses some details at the darker parts of the chest of the bird on the right as well as at the trunk the birds are sitting on.

 

[Lisa W]

Agree with the others, prefer A.

 

[KC Foggin]

A for me.

 

[MerlinT]

Yep: A!

 

[Mono]

Again A, but I would also like to see the straight off the camera version.

 

[Rob from Texas]

A is perfect, hard to improve on it.

 

[MikeInPA]

Again A, but I would also like to see the straight off the camera version.

Cant give you a SOOC as it's a .NEF @ 35.6MB 6048x4024px

Here it's a 1600px version.

 

[MikeInPA]

Hmmmmmm, not what I wanted to read.

I'm thinking that A is a little too sharp to my liking. I'm liking a slight softer image. First thing I do is to run Topaz DeNoise which does a fantastic job of reducing noise but it also adds some sharpening if you run it in Auto. I'll run it again and remove the Sharpening element and see how that looks.

Subsequent Edit. Even running DeNoise in manual and reducing the sharpening element to the lowest setting it still adds a bit of sharpening.

Left is Original, Right is after DeNoise with lowest possible Sharpening Element.

 

[Peregrine Took]

'A' looks best. Don't take this the wrong way, but (not really knowing what you're trying to gain) I think you're in danger of 'pixel peeping'. While the image looks really nice at about 30-40cm across, once you get really 'close' it's obvious that there's not a huge amount of resolution to play with. You're never going to fix that particular problem in post production, so personally, I'd be happy with the image at a size that the resolution allows.
.

 

[Musoman]

I like A better Mike, but i agree with you that it is just a tad too sharp, and B is a tad too soft, but it's really nit picking

The photo is awsome, regardless

 

[KC Foggin]

I truly love them both! Beautifully detailed.

 

[pbjosh]

A, B looks clearly artificially softened.

 

[MiddleRiver]

B is more 'painterly' and has a beautiful glow. I can imagine it blown up quite large on an office wall. From a naturalist's POV, A is much better as more detail is resolved and it does not diminish my study of the bird. It's lovely in it's own way. I suspect non-birders might be more drawn towards B while here the consensus is obviously A - after all, are we not obsessed with our binos resolving a gnats-arse?

 

[Tmathews55]

I really like A

 

[dixonlau]

A for me. If you mask the subject and only blur the background, I would go for B.