Is this Image too crisp

[Ollokot]

As someone with a big L plate on with regard to Photography and Post-Processing I feel this Image may be to crisp,many many thanks in advance for any feedback.



Best Wishes Pat

[Geoff F]

Yes, for me, the edges seem sharper than the body.

Birds are difficult though. They tend to naturally have 'soft edges' so they can appear slightly soft when 'correctly' focused and processed.

But with this scene, I would be tempted to sharped the bird slightly more than the wire.

[Donald]

Pat

I'm not so convinced, but .....

On the basis of you obviously questioning it, this is where a bit of learning (if it's needed) around about selective sharpening could be useful. I would have thought you want the eye and, for me, the legs really sharp. The rest could cope with being a bit softer.

So, it's about sharpening it all up and then just revealing the bits (with a paintbrush) that you want to sharpen, leaving the rest as it was.

[Ollokot]

Hi Geoff,

I see what you mean by the edges being sharper than the body,

Hi Donald,

As you say I concentrated on the eye and the legs and should have paid more attention to the body to get a more even look.
Image sharpening is something I am only learning about and have as yet not ventured into the selective side of it.

Thanks again Geoff,thanks again Donald
Best Wishes

Pat

[Geoff F]

As well as the information available in the CinC tutorials; you may find this useful http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/s...1/sharpen1.htm there are 6 sections about sharpening there.

[Geoff F]

And these tutorials are also excellent http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/tutorials-pdf.htm

[Geoff F]

Another unexpected problem!

I went to fetch a link but lost my original post; which has now appeared. So please ignore this one.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Pat,

I tend to shoot a fair few birds and I also often struggle to get the bodies looking sharp - in the early days this meant oversharpening the outline FWIW, I have done worse than this myself, it isn't too bad.

TBH I'm not sure I have it sussed yet either, I think if shot from too far away, or when in motion like this, any detail in the body feathers very often just gets too blurred out, either by the lens, camera shake or subject movement.

If you have something as simple as Elements, or even GIMP; you can easily selectively sharpen by duplicating the image to a new layer, so now you have two versions of it. Sharpen the lower one for the subject (turn off the top one while you do this), optionally sharpen the top one for the background, then erase the top one to reveal the other, if you got things the right way round, with the subject underneath, you effectively erase the subject from the top layer so the sharp version shows through from underneath, zoom in and go carefully around the edges. Then flatten the image.

The other thing I am personally find works for me is to make sure all noise is removed (Neat Image) so you can sharpen the feathers with a very low, or zero, threshold.

Hope that helps,

[Ollokot]

Thanks Geoff for the links I will get the study cap on.

Hi Dave many thanks for your comments I will definitely give your suggestions a try,
Hope you don't mind my asking but what does FWIW stand for

[Donald]

what does FWIW stand for

Pat - I think he means 'for what it's worth'. Took me a while to work out all this interweb speak!

Still don't get half of it.

[Dave Humphries]

Ooops, sorry

TBH = to be honest
FWIW does indeed = for what it's worth

Thanks Donald

Pat, I shot some more birds today, so one will probably appear in Day 29 or Day 30's PAD, if there's anything special or instructive that arises when I PP it, I'll perhaps add it here with some words.

Cheers,

[Klickit]

Pat, as far as image sharpness goes, I have not yet developed my eye sufficiently to have a helpful insight but as images go, I really like this. Great framing and composition and for me, there is an interesting and somewhat menacing sub-plot in it.