Grazing Horse Sharpening Critique requested

[ScoutR]

Here is another shot where I think I may have oversharpened. What do you think. It looks good to me, or I wouldn't have done it BUT the thing is it's so different from what I'm used to with my old camera and I thought I was getting sharp photos with that one. All critique is welcome.



Wendy

[Donald]

Here is another shot where I think I may have oversharpened.

No, I don't think so at all. Indeed, I wondered if the addition of Local Contrast Enhancement on the grass would add to the image?

[ScoutR]

I will give that a try Donald. It is the grass that I was concerned about so if you think it could use LCE then I don't think I've gone too far which makes me quite happy because as I said I liked the look of it, but it's just so "crispy" compared to what I'm used to, I was sure it probably looked horrible to everyone else.

Wendy

[jamn4ex]

I am googling local contrast enhancement Miltos suggested that too me on one of mine, but I am kinda like a monkee with a pair of dividers when it comes to post processing.
I didnt feel like your pic was oversharpened, maybe the little glare on the grass made you think that?

[ScoutR]

Hi James, here is a link to the tutorial on Local contrast Enhancement here at CiC. I'd try to explain it myself, but :/ I'm sure you'll be better off with the tutorials. It's a good thing to know about. There are links to other web pages at the bottom of the tutorial. Check them out and if you think it's something you might find benificial, try it out on some shots and post them here for C&C.
Thanks for the feedback on the horse shot. I'm not using the camera as much as I used to and I'm not trusting my judgement right now so the feedback is really helpful. Anyway, here is the link

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...nhancement.htm

[jamn4ex]

Thank you Wendy

[jeeperman]

I like this Wendy, very nice and peaceful.

[ScoutR]

Thanks Paul, don't know why but lone horses grazing are right up there with lone trees for me, just can't resist them.

Wendy

[BCrose]

I see this a bit different. Composition is nice, I like the downward view opening up the valley below. I might have moved over to your right and eliminated the wires from the image.

As far as sharpening goes I think that the grass in the foreground is over done. It looks to me that the focus point is in front of the horse. So trying to get the horse sharper will result in the focus point being over sharpened unless you use something like Lightroom where you can localize sharpening. Your camera has an option for viewing focus points when reviewing. I have mine turned on so that I can tell if I nailed the focus where I intended. To me that is the most important part of wildlife photography as it isolates the subject.

[Steve S]

I have to agree with monte, the forground grass is over baked. A simple solution is to sharpen using a layer mask and don't sharpen the grass as much as the rest of the image. You can also double click the top sharpening layer and use the "blend if " option. Move the sliders on the top layer to 32 and 216. This will keep you from sharpening the dark shadow detail (noise), and the highlights. Everything inbetween will be sharpened.