What's the secret?

[Saorsa]

Yes. That's a really insightful comment to address the question of creating ANY image of 'an old abbey'.

Many (professional) 'Landscape Photographers' spend time to scout the best camera viewpoint and then once that is decided, simply wait for the light - which might take several days.

WW

Yes, it's really hard to fit photography into a holiday trip. There is never the knowledge of the area or the time to do a really good job.

On our trip to England we went to Battle Abbey and I didn't consider anything I took a WOW shot. I kind of like this one though.

[inkista]

Is that pics of fuzzy cats or fuzzy pics of cats Kathy?

Both.

[tripbeetle]

EOS 30D, 17-55mm f/2.8 IS at 24mm, ISO 100, 1/125 second @ f/5.6

No offense intended, but ... I find this image so sharp that it's garish and lifeless. It seems that most other elements have been sacrificed to obtaining sharpness. Give me a blurry image any day.

[Manfred M]

No offense intended, but ... I find this image so sharp that it's garish and lifeless. It seems that most other elements have been sacrificed to obtaining sharpness. Give me a blurry image any day.

David - that of course is your opinion, and you are entitled to it.

I am someone who gets tired of the vast quantities of soft images out there, regardless if they were caused by focusing issues or camera shake. I prefer that images are both technically well done as well as being well composed and captivating.

[rpcrowe]

No offense intended, but ... I find this image so sharp that it's garish and lifeless. It seems that most other elements have been sacrificed to obtaining sharpness. Give me a blurry image any day.

No offense taken. Every one is entitled to his or her own opinion of what constitutes a good image. One of my fetishes against much of today's "street photography" is that the images are often blurry...

I personally like this image because although the focus is throughout the image from foreground to background, the photographers are (IMO) separated from the background by virtue of being in a shadowed light...

However, this is not a thread on my Yosemite image, it is a thread on how to produce a sharp image using a crop camera (in this case an older 30D - the OP uses a 7D). I chose this image as an example because it is sharp from foreground to background...

[DanK]

However, this is not a thread on my Yosemite image, it is a thread on how to produce a sharp image using a crop camera

Beat me to it. But then again, the OP never returned and didn't post the photos folks asked him for.

[William W]

A general comment on Lighting and the Photographer having a keen eye to see it and then capture it:

. . . I personally like this image [Richard's Yosemite Park Image] because although the focus is throughout the image from foreground to background, the photographers are separated from the background by virtue of being in a shadowed light...

That type of SUBJECT SEPARATION is quite difficult to do. In my opinion you've done it well.

It is NOT a silhouette - the FOREGROUND SUBJECTS have good detail and are certainly NOT "lost in the shadows".

Even the MIDDLE GROUND is in good detailed shadow and it is only the BACKGROUND which is in the KEY LIGHT.

I also think that the REPETITION of the MOTIF (i.e. rear view of many Photographers) is another main reason why the lighting works well for this shot.

WW

[Black Pearl]

No offense intended, but ... I find this image so sharp that it's garish and lifeless. It seems that most other elements have been sacrificed to obtaining sharpness. Give me a blurry image any day.

How about adding something positive to the thread by using one of your own images as an example of what you feel is a well processed and correctly down-sampled then sharpened image? Please add your methods/workflow so others can gain something from your experience.

Looking forward to your input...

[IzzieK]

How about adding something positive to the thread by using one of your own images as an example of what you feel is a well processed and correctly down-sampled then sharpened image? Please add your methods/workflow so others can gain something from your experience.

Looking forward to your input...

Good idea!!! You couldn't have said it any better!!

[rpcrowe]

A general comment on Lighting and the Photographer having a keen eye to see it and then capture it:



That type of SUBJECT SEPARATION is quite difficult to do. In my opinion you've done it well.

It is NOT a silhouette - the FOREGROUND SUBJECTS have good detail and are certainly NOT "lost in the shadows".

Even the MIDDLE GROUND is in good detailed shadow and it is only the BACKGROUND which is in the KEY LIGHT.

I also think that the REPETITION of the MOTIF (i.e. rear view of many Photographers) is another main reason why the lighting works well for this shot.

WW

Thanks Bill; in a case like this when the exposure can be a bit tricky; Auto Exposure Bracketing is a great tool in the photographer's tool box. I was not shooting with a camera (EOS 30D) that had user selected modes. However, after Canon introduced that wonderful tool in the 40D, I always have one of the modes set up for AEB in burst mode. That way it is just so simple to switch from my normal way of shooting to the AEB mode...

As with many of my images, a bit of PP also helped this one...

IMO, this one is a shot of the "Valley Overlook Viewsite", not necessarily a shot of Yosemite itself. It is the only sequence of shots (among the several hundred images I shot of Yosemite) that includes people.

The photographers were readying themselves for the rainbow that quite often appears for a very short time, in the evening, around the waterfall just above the photographer in the red shirt. When I stopped my car in the parking area, the photographers were already lined up and seemed to be posing for me I couldn't resist that shot and as I mentioned, AEB helped me nail the exposure!

The image almost reminds me of a cyclorama in which a 3-D foreground leads into a 2-D background...

[LePetomane]

Has Elvis left the building?

He may have but there is a lot of good information in this thread.

[IzzieK]

He may have but there is a lot of good information in this thread.

Yes...I used one of them already about enlarging Live View. I didn't know I could do it...I thought I have to take a shot first before I can enlarge. It helps very much. I will try it again when I do my shoot of one of Bill's airplane displays proliferating this house.

[tripbeetle]

How about adding something positive to the thread by using one of your own images as an example of what you feel is a well processed and correctly down-sampled then sharpened image? Please add your methods/workflow so others can gain something from your experience.

Looking forward to your input...

Hi, and sorry for the delay. My comment was not intended to question the poster's ability to process images well and correctly sharpen them. There is no doubt that the image in question was very sharp indeed. I therefore can't really reply in kind with a better sharpened image of my own, but I can post a recent picture I took that I think has adequate sharpness where it matters without sacrificing mood. Comments welcome.


Fujifilm X-70, ISO 640, 1/250 second @ f/6.4
Lightroom settings
Temperature: 7271
Tint: +22
Exposure: +0.25
Contrast: +9
Shadows: +100
Clarity: +15
Saturation: -15
Tone curve Lights: +4
Saturation Green: +25
Sharpening Amount: 105
Sharpening Radius: 0.5
Sharpening Detail: 7
Sharpening Masking: 0
Dehaze: +40