This image is also from my trip last week to the Okavango. The carmines had just arrived and started to excavate the river bank. They were very skittish and getting good images was very difficult. Hopefully they will settle down and get more approachable later in the season.
I have had a few request for information on my web sharpening technique. Here it is:
First I resize the image to twice the posting size i.e. say to 2000 pixels on the widest axis at 72 ppi. I then run the sharpen filter (filter - sharpen - sharpen) once over the whole image. I then reduce the image to posting size (i.e. 1000 pixels). Often this results in adequate sharpness. If need be, I will run an additional weak smart sharpening over the image once at amount 30%, radius 0.3. After this I create a duplicate layer and run a Gaussian blur on that layer at radius 2.5 pixels to remove noise and sharpening artefacts in the background (this is not always necessary if the background is smooth already). I then erase this layer over the areas that need to be sharp (e.g. the bird and other parts of the image which are on the same focal plane as the bird).
For a "skittish" and "unsettle" subject, this one "flashed" you very well Chris. Love the image for its detail in the subject, colour, out of focus background and general light quality. Thanks for the discussion on methodology as well and I'll test it sometime.
Very nice shot Chris. I guess you don't need to be too concerned with depth of field for a pose like this!
Thanks for sharing you sharpening methods - I'll definately give it a go.
Beautiful under-wing details. And thanks for sharing your technique with us. Next time I will see if I can do this to one of my images since it sounds like a good one.
Thanks for sharing the sharpening tech Chris! super banking image and hope the birds are less skittish next month. Going up to Shakawe next month for a week, cant wait!!!
Southern Carmine Bee-eater
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