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Thread: Timothy Grass - Bad hair day

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    Default Timothy Grass - Bad hair day

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    Flowering Timothy grass with anthers sticking out.
    Canon 7DII + 180/3.5 + tripod
    f/8, 1/500, ISO 800
    Canon DPP4 for Raw conversion, PSCC, just a touch of noise reduction in Topaz.
    Full frame image

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Ravi I think it is a good image but I feel it is oversharpened. I would suggest two things firstly reduce the highlights - it may then not appear oversharpened but if it does then reduce the sharpness. I suspect it may possibly be a little too sharp in DPP. I think it is worth having another look at, grass seed heads are always interesting up close and each year I keep forgetting to add to my collection - you have prompted me.

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    Jonathan, I processed differently than the above - ACR, cleaning up background and trying to bring down the whites. Looks slightly darker than the first one. I also cropped it slightly all around. I applied noise reduction only to the background. I think the oversharpening effect is caused by backlighting creating contrast between the darker anthers and the whit and translucent filaments.

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    BPN Member Steve Maxson's Avatar
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    Ravi, I don't think I've ever seen (or noticed) anthers like this on a grass seed head before - quite impressive! On the repost, I like that I see more detail on the purple "heads" of the anthers, but partly what is striking about the OP is the whiteness of the filaments - and that seems toned down a bit in the repost. I'm not sure if you can have the best of both images in the same image.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Ravi, I think repost is better, I agree the light quality/direction will be playing the biggest part.
    The other point is I cannot help but feel the initial sharpening is critical - especially if you use Topaz Denoise because this also sharpens the image.
    When using Topaz I open the file from ACR having adjusted the exposure/blacks/Whited shadows/highlights and White balance ONLY. - No sharpening at all - zero. (Sharpening increases noise)
    Then open Topaz DN AI, set to Auto and check, if necessary adjust but very often Auto is just fine. Then I make a new Smart Layer and go back to ACR and adjust as required but again I do not add sharpening, I only sharpen when producing the final image for web.

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    I like the framing. A nice frame of something most people would over look. A reflector would have helped with the lighting here.

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