Is this pointless?

[mariejo]

Hi, I took that shot of my puppy running in snow when a little mouse pass by him running full speed...I noticed that little creature only when viewing on computer screen...Can I do something to improve quality ? ( I find it funny to watch and would like to keep it). I tried to sharpen, noise,etc..but still not nice, Is it pointless ?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Marie-Josee,

It's never gonna be great, but I reckon, from fullsize RAW (assuming that's not already a significant crop) I could do something with it.

It would take multiple passes of USM with varying Amounts and Radii, and keep an eye on threshold.

[mariejo]

hummmmm !! You are talking to a girl that's still reading: photo for dummy ! What's USM ? and RADii ? I'll try more stuff...thanks for looking at it...

Hi Marie-Josee,

It's never gonna be great, but I reckon, from fullsize RAW (assuming that's not already a significant crop) I could do something with it.

It would take multiple passes of USM with varying Amounts and Radii, and keep an eye on threshold.

[Klickit]

I would keep it even if it isn't the best photo ever. The whole point of it is that it is a funny and memorable photo of your pup that you will still enjoy a long time to come.

Pssstt!! Notice he said "I", being "he", could do something with it.

[Blazing fire]

Is this any better? It is oversharpened, but that was the only way to bring out the details in the dog's face. I also did not apply any noise reduction, because that would further reduce the amount of details in the photo.

[ToadSlayer]

Nice treatment Blazing Fire.

I agree that the sharpening is, to my eye, right on the border of 'over-cooking' it. But it does also impart a lovely crisp feel to the snow.

Great shot, and well worth being a keeper.

[tihsgod]

You are never going to recover a lot of anything extra from this but you caught a great moment and you should be very happy with that! Don't enter a photo competition with it but I am sure your family and friends will love it. Tell them your dog was running flat out when you caught this... neil

[Geoff F]

I've had a little play with your photo, Marie Josee.



Very basically, I selected the dog and the mouse using the freehand lasso tool then feathered the selection; and applied a little bit of sharpening (Unsharp Mask Tool).

Because of the selection, the sharpening was only applied to the selected area (dog and mouse) not the background; so they appear sharper than the background.

Then just a little tidying up with a Blur Tool and a slight adjustment of the contrast using Curves.

I often use this method for enhancing my insect photos. The correct method of selective sharpening involves the use of layers and semi transparent masks, but this simpler workaround usually produces a suitable result.

ps. it would work well if combined with Neil's suggestion for blurring the background.

[Blazing fire]

Nice treatment Blazing Fire.

I agree that the sharpening is, to my eye, right on the border of 'over-cooking' it. But it does also impart a lovely crisp feel to the snow.

Great shot, and well worth being a keeper.

Thank you.

PS: I did not use unsharp mask. Since there clearly was motion blur in the original photo, I used smart sharpen instead.

I like tihsgod's version too.

[Alis]

You are never going to recover a lot of anything extra from this but you caught a great moment and you should be very happy with that! Don't enter a photo competition with it but I am sure your family and friends will love it. Tell them your dog was running flat out when you caught this... neil

Great idea! Good use of postprocessing

[mariejo]

Hey, thank you all !! I was happily surprise with all the photos !! If you don`t mind, I`ll keep a few versions...if it`s OK with you...they are so cool !!! thans a lot !!!

[MiniChris]

Nothing in which something is learned, is ever pointless.

[tihsgod]

Nothing in which something is learned, is ever pointless.

I can hear my headmaster saying that to me sixty five years ago
Just a few weeks before he threw me out

[MiniChris]

My headmaster's - well, head mistresses as they were all nuns, found other ways to get one's attention - rulers and knuckles....and despite the pain, we did learn. Maybe that was the point afterall.