st Ives,cornwall

just a couple from a recent holiday in cornwall.after dodging rain we had a great day in st Ives.c&c welcome.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3..._1240-Edit.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3..._1236-Edit.jpg

Bootsy,

What camera were you using for these shots and what settings? The composition is fine but there is a lot of noise/blur.

The lack of resolution suggests to me these two images are cropped single frames rather than multi frame panoramas (as the letter box format would suggest) and judging by the dust spots (in the sky), you were using a rather small aperture which may, through diffraction, have added to the lack of resolution.

EXIF says f/16 for both and a Canon 400D (at 1/400s and 1/320s), with PP in LR.

They really should be sharper than this - I suspect, due to the 640 width, they have been downsized by Photobucket (where they're hosted) and hence not subsequently sharpened.

I don't know what the lenses were, but the max aperture suggests two different ones. They were taken at 20mm and 10mm.

St Ives, one of my favourite places. It used to take six hours to drive here though and I don't hang around or stop for breaks. :)

It may well be a resizing issue because it doesn't quite look like poor focus or motion blur to me. Perhaps Bootsy can supply some more information about this.

But, for some reason, I can't get my images to look sharp and well coloured on this site. They appear fine on my computer and print OK but always seem dull here.

I start with Raw converted to 16 bit tiff then, for internet use, I convert to Jpeg at 90 or 100% at 700 pixels wide (800 on my Pbase site). I use the best quality interpolation for downsizing and have even tried resharpening, etc, on the Jpeg after it has been saved instead of before saving.

They still lose a bit of quality on my P base site but I think when I link photos from Pbase they do degrade a bit more here.

Or perhaps it is just the fear of having my meager efforts placed alongside the real experts :rolleyes:

ps. I have just copied the first photo to my photo edit software and it does appear sharper there. 640 pixels at 96 ppi.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arith

St Ives, one of my favourite places. It used to take six hours to drive here though and I don't hang around or stop for breaks. :)

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i love st ives and the 6 hour drive from cambridgshire.i take a few times a year is worth it.i'd move down there if i could get the work

both images shot using a sigma 10-20mm lens on my 400D.sharpen and cropped and little tweak using lightroom 2.and resized using photobucket.i got to say on my monitor they both look great but i'm no expert.is this resize problem just a photobucket thing or should i be hosting my images with another site ?
cheers for the comments

Hi Bootsy,

I probably haven't been to St. Ives since I was <10, so memories are rather faded now ;)

I expect the original images do look fine to you, however, if you think the ones in the post look fine too, I bet you're viewing on a CRT (not LCD) monitor!

"Is it just a Photobucket problem?" Yes and No; in my limited experience, they are one of the worst for this, but it can be circumvented by YOU doing the downsize and subsequent sharpen, then hosting that somewhere where it won't be further reduced before display here. If you're only going to share at 640 pixels - even on detailed images like these, then down size to 640, or 700 (no more) and for our benefit, host them as an attachment, or better still, in an album here.

I suggest having a good read of this thread;
https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/forums/thread3571.htm

I still maintain that following the numbered steps in my post #6 is the most foolproof way to achieve success with rectifying image quality problems.

I had another close look at the pictures and it is mainly the 10mm (second) one which appears unduly soft - I can see the first has had some sharpening done. However, I have to say, for such images, I'd far rather see them bigger, say 1280 wide (i.e. about double).

I like the compositions too, they make me want to go there again.

HTH,

no i'm using a LCD monitor.anyway how do these look.nothing changed just hosted using tiny pics.
http://i37.tinypic.com/2reqq7o.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/4lil8w.jpg

Hi Bootsy,

Better I think, here are the main two adjacent to aid judgement;

Photobucket
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3..._1236-Edit.jpg
http://i37.tinypic.com/jr76fk.jpg
and TinyPic.

I think TinyPic is sharper, with a better colour resolution, but I also think the 10mil is suffering having detail that just won't fit sensibly into 640 px.

See what you think side-by-side?

i dont think i'll bother with Photobucket as much now.as TinyPic looks much better

Very interesting, photobucket really destroys images!

Hi Bootsy,

I too have fond memories of St Ives and my visit to Cornwall. My ancestors came from Redruth so I took some time to visit the area when I was in England some 3 years ago. I understand many painters come to St Ives for inspiration. I hope you don’t mind me adding an image to this gallery but it reminded me to have another look at my shots for old time sake. A great spot in deed.

http://i37.tinypic.com/2a9dyz7.jpg

thats a great shot mate