Image created at the Painetown Wilderness Recreation Area on Lake Monroe, IN. I know he's not the most exciting of birds, but he sat still long enough for me to take several images, and that's what I need at the moment: a compliant subject. Late afternoon light, with a lightly overcast sky. This is the best of the group.
Not as detailed as the amazing images on this site, but I am working towards greater detail, as well as more proficiency with PSE; am trying to push the camera (Olympus SP-570UZ) and lens to their limits. I sharpened the eye and the beak; did a bit of blending on the beak; and generally increased the saturation and contrast of the image. This is a significantly cropped image, well over 50% of the original has been removed. The background is as shot.
For reasons I can't understand, LR does not display the technical details of this image (it does for all others ...), so I can't reconstruct them. I know that the zoom was at its max (92mm) and I used a 1.7 teleconverter on top of that--should be something like 850mm equivalent in 35mm terms. I was working in aperture priority mode, RAW, and set it for f4.2 or so--the widest opening I could get, in order to get the fastest shutter speed I could (hand-held, at fairly close range). Histogram shows no blown out whites, nothing in the extreme dark range, and good distribution throughout the image (peaks at both ends), although not especially leaning to the bright end of the spectrum. If I read this right, it seems balanced.
Hi Massimo What lens were you using? Very few zooms will work well with tele converters!!!
You do have a good pose, its well exposed and have a reasonable bg. Would rather not have the lighter areas but they don't detract all that much.
For sharpness you need to get closer to avoid the large crop. When you nail an image it should not need all that much PS work. Normally some level or curves adjustment but that will get you in the ball park. Probably made the best image you could from your location !!!
Well, the Olympus 570UZ is a fixed-lens zoom. So they have designed this over-the-lens-and-out-in-front "extender" or teleconverter. The camera zoom actually shoots through the 1.7 magnifier. Odd arrangement. The optics seem to be ok, but I wonder just how much detail I will be able to milk out of it even with the best shooting technique and conditions.
It's forcing me to work very hard to get decent results; I figure this is good training ... I come from a completely film-oriented background, and have done most of my work in black and white. So this digital camera stuff is very much new ground.
Hi - I do like the pose and HA , The 570UZ is a 20X zoom compact camera - looking at your results above I would offer my humble opinion and say that the tele converter is not going to work that well for you.
Have seen some great macro shots from this camera - but think you are trying to push it too far with the teleconverter - also the crop is not going to help you either - these camera's have a much smaller sensor than a SLR -- about 1/8th the size if my meory serves me well.
In the end it all comes down to knowing your camera inside out back to front in 9 languages -- then you will know its strength's and weakness's and how far you can push it.
Looking forward to more - DO TRY some macro with it the results can be very very good.
Hi Massimo,
I like the composition...agree with the techs. and good advise given by both Mr. Peters and Mr. Forns...What hits me off the bat, is the amount of noise present in the background. I'm not sure if this is a combination of having a small sensor and pushing the camera's envelope; going from focal zoom to digital zoom...Mr. Peters can probably verify this for me...:cool:
The problem is --- smaller sensor + teleconverter + 50 % crop = pushing whats possible with this combo.
Noise of this magnitude is fairly common with high zoom compacts especially when yuo add a 50% crop.
In very good light this camera will perform quite well - is lesser light not so well. (I dont think this camera has digital zoom - at least if it does it is not turned ON by default - you certainly would not want to be using digital zoom as well)
Robin
