Long-tailed Duck

[Karl Egressy]

This is the same duck I posted yesterday.
I have a series of nine pictures of him if I'm correct. All sharp but only three has good wing position.
This is my favorite.
The focus point was sitting on the belly this time, therefore I applied a few more rounds of sharpening to the head.
Thanks for looking.

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Manual Exposure
Tv 1/2000
Av 5.6
ISO 400
EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x

[Arthur Morris]

A wonderful pose but the image quality problems persist here only to a greater degree; the face and eye look funky....

[Ofer Levy]

I have to agree with Artie regarding IQ in here.

[Karl Egressy]

A wonderful pose but the image quality problems persist here only to a greater degree; the face and eye look funky....

Thanks Artie.
I wish it had flown closer but it did not. Some other time I hope. This was my first shooting of this species of this season.
Later on, there will be more and they will come closer especially if a boat crosses the channel.
The face and eye; maybe too much sharpening? I also darkened it a bit except the eye.

[arash_hazeghi]

Karl I agree with the above that the IQ is not great, can you post the original? how do you sharpen your files?

[Doug Brown]

Love the pose Karl. But the detail and exposure could be better. Looking forward to more of your images of this species; hopefully the encounters will bring the ducks closer to you.

[Karl Egressy]

Karl I agree with the above that the IQ is not great, can you post the original? how do you sharpen your files?

Thanks Arash.
I have written a little "action" in PP for sharpening.
It goes through all the steps that you can find in any handbook or on the Internet.
I have and use Ellen Anon and Tim Grey's handbook on Photoshop CS3 and some other earlier handbooks.
I use photoshop CS5 now.
Sharpening: sometimes I separate the main object and sharpen it.
Sometimes I separate part of the object again, mostly the eye or the whole head.
I do all what you guys do.
Other times I sharpen the whole image.
It all depends.
Here is the original in jpeg.
I estimate the distance as being about 25-30 m but could be wrong.

[Stu Bowie]

Karl, good flying angle, and I too like the wing position. I like how the duck is sepatared from the water BG. From your original, I feel you have lost IQ due to being a large crop.

[Doug Brown]

Could you show us a 100% crop of the unsharpened RAW file? If you don't mind sending me the RAW file to have a look, I'd appreciate it. Check for a PM.

[Roger Clark]

Karl,
It looks to me like the main focus may be behind the bird. Have you calibrated and applied microadjustment to your setup? And possibly important, did you check microadjustment on site?

Roger

[Karl Egressy]

Karl,

It looks to me like the main focus may be behind the bird. Have you calibrated and applied microadjustment to your setup? And possibly important, did you check microadjustment on site?

Roger

Hi Roger,

Sorry to say but you are not right with the focus point. The main (middle) focus point was on the belly.
All of my lenses and extenders were calibrated as recently as 2-3 weeks ago, using Lens Align MkII.
Thanks anyway taking your time making a comment.
I did check microadjustment on site.
It showed -5. I did the microadjustment at home.
I extesively discussed this issue with E.J. Peiker and he answered my question;
the passible missalighment is not a function of the local ambient, therefore no furter adjustment needed as the temperature changes.
I hope it answers your questions.
Thanks again, I appreciate your concerns.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks Arash.
I have written a little "action" in PP for sharpening.
It goes through all the steps that you can find in any handbook or on the Internet.
I have and use Ellen Anon and Tim Grey's handbook on Photoshop CS3 and some other earlier handbooks.
I use photoshop CS5 now.
Sharpening: sometimes I separate the main object and sharpen it.
Sometimes I separate part of the object again, mostly the eye or the whole head.
I do all what you guys do.
Other times I sharpen the whole image.
It all depends.
Here is the original in jpeg.
I estimate the distance as being about 25-30 m but could be wrong.

Hi Karl, your focus is good, the crop is however a bit large and thus the loss of detail. It seems to me your output sharpening is not very good either. If you want email me the full size JPEG and I'll work on it.

Cheers

[Karl Egressy]

Hi Karl, your focus is good, the crop is however a bit large and thus the loss of detail. It seems to me your output sharpening is not very good either. If you want email me the full size JPEG and I'll work on it.

Cheers

Hi Arash,

I could but I would need your email addressin order to send it as an attachment.
Cheers.
Karl.

[James Salywoda]

Nice wing position and angle of capture you did suffer from lack of image quality but eventually you will get a better chance with something closer.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Arash,

I could but I would need your email addressin order to send it as an attachment.
Cheers.
Karl.

I sent you a PM check your BPN PM inbox

[Roger Clark]

[CENTER]

Hi Roger,

Sorry to say but you are not right with the focus point. The main (middle) focus point was on the belly.
All of my lenses and extenders were calibrated as recently as 2-3 weeks ago, using Lens Align MkII.
Thanks anyway taking your time making a comment.
I did check microadjustment on site.
It showed -5. I did the microadjustment at home.
I extesively discussed this issue with E.J. Peiker and he answered my question;
the passible missalighment is not a function of the local ambient, therefore no furter adjustment needed as the temperature changes.
I hope it answers your questions.
Thanks again, I appreciate your concerns.

Karl,
Please note I did not say focus point. I said focus. Look at the unsharpened image you posted in pane 6 and look at the water below the bird. It appears to me that the best focus in the water is at a point slightly behind the bird. Next look at the catchlight in the eye in that frame and in the original post at the top of the thread: the catchlight seems rather large, also indicating the focus is slightly off. Please post a full resolution crop of the bird's head (or slightly larger) before sharpening and we will be able to tell more.

Regarding microadjustment, it can vary depending on system temperature, so when I said did you check microadjustment I meant more than simply looking to see if microadjustment was enabled. Did you do any evaluation on site to confirm the microadjustment is correct for the conditions you were imaging in? I also have a 1DIV and the more I evaluate on site, in varying temperatures, the more I am seeing this is an issue. It may not be in your setup, just asking if you checked.

Roger

[Karl Egressy]

Karl,
Please note I did not say focus point. I said focus. Look at the unsharpened image you posted in pane 6 and look at the water below the bird. It appears to me that the best focus in the water is at a point slightly behind the bird. Next look at the catchlight in the eye in that frame and in the original post at the top of the thread: the catchlight seems rather large, also indicating the focus is slightly off. Please post a full resolution crop of the bird's head (or slightly larger) before sharpening and we will be able to tell more.

Regarding microadjustment, it can vary depending on system temperature, so when I said did you check microadjustment I meant more than simply looking to see if microadjustment was enabled. Did you do any evaluation on site to confirm the microadjustment is correct for the conditions you were imaging in? I also have a 1DIV and the more I evaluate on site, in varying temperatures, the more I am seeing this is an issue. It may not be in your setup, just asking if you checked.

Roger

That was my thought originally as well having come from a mechanical engineering background.
I even calculated how much the barrel's length will change if the delta T is 45 degrees celsius negative or fifteen Celsisus degrees positive.
One represents our winter, the other our summer extreme temperatures, and the starting point was 20 degrees Celsius degrees as the ambient for the microadjustment.
I was told that the electronics will compensate for that change once I took care of the microadjustment between the lens and the camera.
I'll take you advice and check it on a subject more often at the shooting site. I have already been doing it but not always.

[arash_hazeghi]

Karl, here is your photo with optimal processing. given the crop there isn't more details but not bad...hopefully you can get a better one next time :)

[Karl Egressy]

---

Karl, here is your photo with optimal processing. given the crop there isn't more details but not bad...hopefully you can get a better one next time :)

Thank you Arash. You did a great job. Looks pretty nice.

[Ofer Levy]

Arash's repost saves this image! Looks pretty sharp and well exposed. If you define the catchlight and make it a bit smaller head will look even sharper.