Just Dande

Folks,

Greetings. Always loved these.

Attachment 133417

NR, then worked the detail in a 250% uprezed version (bicubic preserve detail for uprez), Topaz InFocus, Topaz Adjust, Nik Silver Efex, Nik HDR Efex, luminosity blend back color ~70% opacity. Downsized to 900x900 with straight bicubic less there be an oversharpened appearance.

Original photo cropped to 1600x1600 wasn't particularly sharp (not at all around the perimeter) 600mm HH at 1/100 didn't help much ;-).

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

-Michael-

Hi, Michael, I love dandelions. I think you got great detail in the image and the background is a little busy but not distracting. In fact, I like all the repeating white areas. I've been having problems downsizing from CC without getting "crunchiness" on some images. That had never happened before with CS5 (or CS6 if I remember correctly). If I incrementally downsize it eliminates the problem but it's time consuming. I've started exporting a downsized image from LR 5 and it works much, much better. Any thoughts? You're definitely a lot more technically inclined than I am:S3:

I love the detail you achieved without it looking over-sharpened. Thanks for explaining your workflow. I also think the background works well, and I like the central placement. I think a tighter crop might also work on this one.

Definitely has a different look, although I can't explain it coherently. Won't have time to try to get my head around this idea for a few weeks.

Cheryl, Cindy, Diane,

Thanks much for your comments. They are much appreciated. You might be interested in the original:

Attachment 133489

The detailing results from both traditional detailing methods and resizing to BPN size from a large uprezed version.

Cheryl, Having some time on my hands (I'm a civil servant on furlough ;-{ ) I've been studying the impact of resizing on IQ particularly with respect to cropped versions and uprezed versions. Along the way I've run into the problem of crunchiness, so I've been looking at that too. Here are a few thoughts pertaining to your issue with downsizing resulting in crunchiness:

So we're on the same page, let's define crunchiness as the appearance of aliasing in high localized contrast. In other words, stair step edges with near black to near white pixel-to-pixel contrast.

Without going too technical, downsizing reasonably contrasty detail can result in crunchiness as the downsizing algorithm tries to retain detail over smoothness. Reducing from a FF image to BPN size is a 3x or 4x reduction in size. So, a feather detail that is captured as say, 9 pixels wide, with a center to edge gradient from near white to near black when resized turns into a couple of pixel wide feather with a white-black stair step edges (it's the gradient grays that remove the appearance of the stair step - aka anti-aliasing).

If you are having problems with crunchiness appearing upon downsizing (not before) the good news is your full size image is just too detailed ;-). Things to try:

Use a less detail retaining downsizing tool. I recently swore off making jpegs using LR export because it results in (IMO) soft resized images. Softening on downsize will help cure crunchiness. Not sure you want this ;-).

Save the final sharpening for the resized version since sharpening increases localized contrast at edges (what we're trying to avoid to avoid crunchiness). I've started to stop taking my full sized masters to a fully sharpened final state... now, expecting to process for specific output size. So, the workflow adjustment is full sized version without final sharpening, resize 16-bit RGB mode image to BPN size (either bicubic sharper or just bicubic if I'm still getting crunchiness), now sharpen resized version.

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I should say also that resizing to BPN sizes obliterates exceptionally fine detail. Ends up looking oof. Sigh.

Let me know if this makes sense or not. Or if there are questions. Hope it helps.

Cheers,

-Michael-

Thanks, Michael, for the "detailed" instructions - it makes perfect sense. I'm sorry you have so much time on your hands:S3: Hopefully everything gets resolved soon so you can get back to work.

Sounds like we need better sharpening and resizing algorithms.

Amazing all the detail you extracted w/o halos or artifacts. We will have to start taking lessons from you. I might try a vignette or blur to calm down the BG a bit.