2019 P52 - 2nd Qtr - Sandy(Skitterbug)

Good shot, Sandy. But your extreme settings coupled with a substantial crop have produced a bit of 'noise' and rather harsh appearance to the background.

What I tend to do in these circumstances is either, select the main subject and only sharpen that area, then invert the selection and apply some extra noise reduction solely to the problem area. Alternatively, simply run over and noisy areas with a light blur brush; perhaps around 20% opacity.

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

Good shot, Sandy. But your extreme settings coupled with a substantial crop have produced a bit of 'noise' and rather harsh appearance to the background.

What I tend to do in these circumstances is either, select the main subject and only sharpen that area, then invert the selection and apply some extra noise reduction solely to the problem area. Alternatively, simply run over and noisy areas with a light blur brush; perhaps around 20% opacity.

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Sandy, I agree with Geoff's suggestions. But, having said that, I think this image turned out well. After looking at the unedited version, I was pleasantly surprised at how sharp the fox is in the cropped version. I'd very much like to see a version incorporating Geoff's thoughts. I think you'd then have a very good image.

Hi Geoff and Bruce - I didn't want to have to crop my image as hard as I did but I didn't like the limbs in the way.

I also don't care for the extra noise that the auto ISO seems to want to end up being. I chose the speed in case the fox moved and I chose the aperture because I wanted the whole fox to be sharp and clear. I agree that there is "noise" and a bit of blur, as you both have suggested, should help it. Trying to blur around the fox might be tedious but I do agree that it would improve the image if the background was smoothed out a bit.

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions!

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Originally Posted by skitterbug

Hi Geoff and Bruce - I didn't want to have to crop my image as hard as I did but I didn't like the limbs in the way.

I also don't care for the extra noise that the auto ISO seems to want to end up being. I chose the speed in case the fox moved and I chose the aperture because I wanted the whole fox to be sharp and clear.

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Sandy, I don't consider the noise to be the result of using auto ISO when taking this picture. To get a good exposure you had only three things to play with. In this case you correctly decided that the shutter speed and an f11 aperture were more important than a low ISO. (I'm assuming that your original exposure ended up being more or less correct; i.e., that you did not have to reduce the "exposure" in pp.). If you'd set everything manually, you'd have still ended up with the same ISO as was selected by the auto ISO.

Week 21, nice opportunity, effort, and edit.

I find it harder to have reduced noise using the combo lens/extender since the aperture begins at f/8. But I like the reach it has for catching images like this fox. I am more used to choosing all my settings and tweaking them until I have what I want. However it would be nice to eliminate the hassle. And yes, my exposure was fairly okay for post processing. I always do a bit of adjustment for exposure but this one didn't need much.

I'll probably leave ISO on auto for awhile longer and see what happens next! :)

Thanks for sharing info! :)

Thank you lots John for looking and commenting! :) Photography is one hobby that still gets me out of the house and moving! <chuckle> my other hobby of golf is a lost cause so far - way too much mud for me! Maybe it will dry out eventually. I sure hope so.

The crop image is great!!! What is the difference between a coyote and a fox?

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Originally Posted by Wavelength

The crop image is great!!! What is the difference between a coyote and a fox?

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HI Nandakumar - There are probably quite a few differences but the ones that I think about are these: The fox seems to be a very shy creature, doesn't live in a pack with others, hunts for small creatures for a meal, beautiful reddish coat and brushy tail. Its foot print tracks generally are in a single line. I don't much care for coyotes because they do hunt in packs and will take larger prey when they can. In some areas people even have to be concerned about their pet cats and dogs and small children. They are larger than the fox. Their foot print tracks are offset. That's what I know about them from "off the top of my head" as they say. There are probably others who know quite a bit more about them. I will say that a fox doesn't scare me but a coyote would.

Glad you like the image of the half grown fox I posted! I would like to have more of images of them but they are very wary of changes in their environment and can spot differences quickly! :) So I couldn't hide very well or for very long since the clicking of my camera gave me away. <chuckle>

Thanks again for looking and commenting!

Follow up on Geoff and Bruce's suggestion about noise reduction for the fox pic using Affinity Photo. I started "from scratch" and here are the results of my second effort. Comments are welcome. :)

Reworked week 21 - Little Fox

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...FrQRZg6-X2.jpg

Looks good to me, Sandy.

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

Looks good to me, Sandy.

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+1

This has become a very good wildlife image.

Thank you Geoff and Bruce! :)

Nicely processed, Sandy. The reworking is very subtle and you have a very good image in the final result.

HI David - I learned a bit more about technique! Funny how I never really liked school when I was a kid but I love to learn! <smile> I'm glad you enjoy the image and thank you for commenting! :)

There is a difference between being forced to learn and learning for your own enjoyment. ;)

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Originally Posted by Geoff F

There is a difference between being forced to learn and learning for your own enjoyment. ;)

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Your statement is certainly true! I've taken some interesting community college courses along the way and found even boring stuff interesting - because I wanted to know more about it. :)

Sandy - nice shot and the second edit is definitely better than the first, so long as you don't look at the shot too closely.

If you open it in Lightbox, we start seeing issues that are related to the hard crop you did. There is definitely loss of detail in the fur and there is not much you can do about it as any significant amount of sharpening is going to introduce noise into the image from pixelation. You've probably pushed the images to the limits before artifacts start becoming a distraction.

There are limits on how much you can crop an image...

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Originally Posted by Manfred M

Sandy - nice shot and the second edit is definitely better than the first, so long as you don't look at the shot too closely.

If you open it in Lightbox, we start seeing issues that are related to the hard crop you did. There is definitely loss of detail in the fur and there is not much you can do about it as any significant amount of sharpening is going to introduce noise into the image from pixelation. You've probably pushed the images to the limits before artifacts start becoming a distraction.

There are limits on how much you can crop an image...

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Hi Manfred - Thanks for your thoughts about the fox image. I decided to give it one more try from the RAW file, hoping to improve my edit. I didn't sharpen the fox except for eyes and nose because I do agree - detail was definitely lost in the cropping and editing process. I decided to clone out a lot of the black area and then give a crop to leave a bit of space in front of the fox. I'll be curious to know your thoughts about this one.

Reworked Fox Image

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...dSrLdqW-X2.jpg

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Originally Posted by skitterbug

Hi Manfred - Thanks for your thoughts about the fox image. I decided to give it one more try from the RAW file, hoping to improve my edit. I didn't sharpen the fox except for eyes and nose because I do agree - detail was definitely lost in the cropping and editing process. I decided to clone out a lot of the black area and then give a crop to leave a bit of space in front of the fox. I'll be curious to know your thoughts about this one.

Reworked Fox Image

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The fox definitely looks more natural in this image. The softness is still there and that is due to the technical issues associated with the capture and subsequent post-processing (i.e. the crop). Keep the image small and you can get away with it; enlarge it and the softness will become a distracting issue.

Nicely done.