Some calibration wanted

[Ben Egbert]

This forum has been very helpful to me. Not just in image capture and post processing, but most important in helping me develop image quality judgment. A sort of calibration of my brain.

This is an old picture, 2006, shot with a 20D and 500f4 at f5, 1/400 second. I am pretty sure I was on a tripod and sidekick here.

I would like to compare your comments with local camera club results.

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/668813251_Gk5is-XL-1.jpg

[BillTyler]

The bird itself is just about perfect. Great pose, sharpness, etc. The two large branches above it are distracting to me. I think the image would be stronger without them.

Bill

[Don Railton]

I agree definately with removing the upper OOF branches and maybe cropping a little off the right and below, its a bit hard to judge with the branchs in place. I simply love the rest..

DON

[Lance Peters]

Hi Ben - Local camera club competition??? If so depends on what their Nature definition is. Obviously for most competitions PS work is not allowed - and IMHO a lot depends on the judges on the day.

Like the pose and the HA - exposure looks good - OOF branches at the top are a little distracting and feels a bit tight on the LHS.
Keep em coming :)

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Ben,
You have a good head angle and sharp details with good definition in the blacks. I like the way the branches frame your subject...would recommend on cropping just a slice off the top...well done...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Ben Egbert]

Hi Ben - Local camera club competition??? If so depends on what their Nature definition is. Obviously for most competitions PS work is not allowed - and IMHO a lot depends on the judges on the day.

Like the pose and the HA - exposure looks good - OOF branches at the top are a little distracting and feels a bit tight on the LHS.
Keep em coming :)

Thanks Lance, the branches were why I posted this. For the print I entered last year, I cropped the image at the top in the middle of the horizontal branch to eliminate the light trap above it. But I did not post it that way because I wanted to get some feed back here on what this forum would do.

I was not aware that PS work was not allowed. Fact is, the club has classes on PS work. Surely we are allowed to do the rudimentary post processing that brings a useless raw up to a normal photograph. Like sharpening, curves and cropping. If no post were allowed, I would be shooting jpg!!

I suspect what you mean by PS might refer to more aggressive stuff? But I know our club allows cloning out stuff too. I hardly ever do more than fix dust and easy to remove branches however.

[Ben Egbert]

Hi Ben,
You have a good head angle and sharp details with good definition in the blacks. I like the way the branches frame your subject...would recommend on cropping just a slice off the top...well done...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

Thanks Gus, thats about what I did for my Saloon print, I cropped all the light portion above that top branch. Must have worked, it got best print of the year last May. The judging was by an outside club.

But I have no illusions that our local club's are at the same level of perfection as this forum.

[David Thomasson]

I like it, but am of several minds about the surrounding branches. Tried one version with some of them taken out. In any case, there are some
nice details in the feathers that could be brought out a bit more. Great job, and congrats on your win.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5254/eaglep.jpg

[Ben Egbert]

I like it, but am of several minds about the surrounding branches. Tried one version with some of them taken out. In any case, there are some
nice details in the feathers that could be brought out a bit more. Great job, and congrats on your win.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5254/eaglep.jpg

Thanks David. Nice clone job. Last year I would never have attempted such a cloning. I might today.

[Jeni Williams]

Hi Ben,
I thought I'd give you an idea what we are allowed to do with our nature images in the "salons" (competitions) held by our camera clubs under the auspices of the national Photography Association.

"The following is not considered to be Digital Manipulation.
a) Removal of dust and scratch marks on scanned images or spots from dust particles on the
CCD/CMOS sensors of digital cameras. Specific lens/sensor aberrations such as chromatic
aberrations and purple fringing may also be corrected or removed.
b) Adjustment of exposure and contrast, including dodging and burning.
c) Adjustment/correction of the colour balance. This can either be done by selecting an appropriate white
balance during the conversion of RAW images, or by adding/subtracting colours in the photo editing
software. The post-capture application of digital colour correction filters like warming or cooling filters,
similar to the 81 and 82 series of filters, is also allowed.
d) Application of colour saturation. Non-selective saturation that is applied to the whole image is
permissible.
e) Reduction of digital noise, especially in high ISO images from digital cameras, or film grain in scanned
images.
f) Sharpening of the image. All modern sharpening algorithms and techniques such as edge-sharpening,
luminance sharpening and mode sharpening are permissible.
g) Cropping and resizing is permissible.
h) (h)The inclusion of a frame or border is permissible as long as it remains within above mentioned size
restrictions.
i) No wording or text is allowed on the image unless it is an integral part of the image."

[Ben Egbert]

Hi Ben,
I thought I'd give you an idea what we are allowed to do with our nature images in the "salons" (competitions) held by our camera clubs under the auspices of the national Photography Association.

"The following is not considered to be Digital Manipulation.
a) Removal of dust and scratch marks on scanned images or spots from dust particles on the
CCD/CMOS sensors of digital cameras. Specific lens/sensor aberrations such as chromatic
aberrations and purple fringing may also be corrected or removed.
b) Adjustment of exposure and contrast, including dodging and burning.
c) Adjustment/correction of the colour balance. This can either be done by selecting an appropriate white
balance during the conversion of RAW images, or by adding/subtracting colours in the photo editing
software. The post-capture application of digital colour correction filters like warming or cooling filters,
similar to the 81 and 82 series of filters, is also allowed.
d) Application of colour saturation. Non-selective saturation that is applied to the whole image is
permissible.
e) Reduction of digital noise, especially in high ISO images from digital cameras, or film grain in scanned
images.
f) Sharpening of the image. All modern sharpening algorithms and techniques such as edge-sharpening,
luminance sharpening and mode sharpening are permissible.
g) Cropping and resizing is permissible.
h) (h)The inclusion of a frame or border is permissible as long as it remains within above mentioned size
restrictions.
i) No wording or text is allowed on the image unless it is an integral part of the image."

Thanks for the reply. Our club does not have any rules of this sort, but then at least half are still using film. At my last instructional meeting, the guy showing us how to prepare an image for club sumission (same as web) was really struggling with the basics like how to change mode, color space etc.

I am not a member of ASA so I don't know their rules or submit there. However, the majority of my images meet the rules you list above. In fact, the only time I have manipulated backgrounds is at this forum. Well I have cloned out a branch or two but not much else.