This is the second shot of my RSH encounter . When I was shooting the first , I realized the Pine tree was not at the best spot in the BG ,But expecting the Hawk to fly ,I quickly "Grabbed " the shot .Then I started to work ,and think . Moving to my left ,made the BG IMO less distracting . In Post I put to practice The Advice of Jeff ,John, And Kerry ,from my last thread .learning How much "Cooking " to do on an image is a study in and of it's self . I say that referring to the photo posted now . I did not blur the BG ,on this one . I did sharpen 3 separate times .first time heavy handed ,then less each of the 2 times after . To my Eye I'm on the edge of "Over cooked " but not quite Crispy . My thoughts on the crop were ..He seems to be looking to My right ,so I gave room to look into . Again there were many vines to be removed as well as brightening the eye .I tried to be sure not to cause a "Cookie Cutter" look ,And Used Kerry's method for "Save for web " ...That worked extremely well ! EXIF Data =Camera is Nikon D90 ,Exposure was at 1/350 ' ,Aperture was at f/6.7 ,Focal Length was at 500 mm (Sigma 150-500mm )ISO Speed set at 800 (Max usable "IMO " with this camera ) Exposure Bias +1 EV . No Flash .Overcast skies . John ,It still seems a little small ...I'll work on that .
Clyde, this one is working much better! The bg is much less distracting and therefore better for the image. The sharpening has worked pretty well, maybe just a bit more of the really fine detail could be brought out. What settings do you use and do you sharpen the image after it has been sized for web? I use some sharpening as soon as I import the image into PS and then a different recipe for the smaller image. I find that these settings (using Unsharp Mask) work well when applied just prior to saving for web - amount: 150% radius: 0.3 threshold: 0. Of course all images are different, but the only parameter I routinely change is the amount. Sometimes you need to run this more than once, as you have done here. The highlights here are pretty hot, and some are clipped, so I would suggest about 1/3 stop less light with the capture or pulling the highlights down in LR. There is a slight cyan cast to the highlights on the plumage. As for the composition, the bird needs to slide over to the right in the frame just a tad - either by a slight move to your left (or just pointing more to the left) or in post if you have the canvas. Good job of incorporating all the suggestions!
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Hi Kerry , And a big Thank you yet again for all your help ! I think you are pointing to two of the most difficult areas of photo finishing .(1) sharpening ,and (2) color correcting . I will soak-up all information like a sponge ! I have not set any numbers on sharpening ,I do it all by sight ,so I can not repeat the exact numbers . I do know the first pass on this photo was around the 160 amount radius 8.5 and 0 threshold (All on bird only ) Copy image , 137 ,8.5 ,0 copy image again 90 ,? ,0 ....I have not found or been taught a method , I like best for this ,just been playing around till I find what looks good to me . some times I use a High pass filter, again to taste . As of yet I have never added anything to the photo after "Save for web " . As far as Color cast ,My monitor is not calibrated ,And at this point I seem to only recognize color cast /shifts after someone else points it out . I will get a spider at some point ....maybe sooner than I had planned . Again I hope at some point I can repay for all the help !
Hi Clyde, just to clarify, I was referring to sharpening after the image is sized for web saving - not after it is saved for web. I suggest you try some sharpening with the radius at 0.3 on the small-sized image and see how it affects the finest details. You are doing really well, keep the images coming!
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Not sure exactly what you did here, but sharpening with amount 160 and radius 8.5 is way too heavy-handed, to the point of trashing an image, which I don't see here. Maybe you meant 0.85??
Sharpening will not correct for soft focus. It introduces artifacts to make thing look somewhat sharper. Only do it on a re-sized output copy, not your master file. (Default sharpening or a little more in raw conversion can be OK, but look at the image at 100% to do it. It will not make a major effect at full-screen viewing size.
A sharp image occurs at capture, with proper focus and DOF. Ca't be fixed to any great extent later.
One thing that can be effective, to improve an already good image, not to fix a bad one, is Nik's Detail Extractor, and maybe a touch of Nik Viveza's Structure.
Kerry and Diane ,I was posting this image while you were posting also , I will be going back to the books about sharpening . Thanks for your replies , time for more schooling .
Well-Medium-or Raw ?
