autumn fishermen

[bugster0121]

Was out on Saturday AM trying to capture some more ducks when these fishermen went by and I was able to capture this image. Have been working on sharpening and with this image which was captured in raw I used a 3.5 radius and 148 setting with the more refined checked in PS Elements with Gausian Blur. It seems about right to me but is it too much sharpening or not enough? I took it with my Canon 60D 75-300 lens at 75 focal length at 1/160 F4.6 Program mode ISO 100. This image is not cropped and does it work as is?

C&C Welcome.

Thanks

[revi]

I can't say anything about the sharpening,
but my first reaction was:
'huh, they camouflage their boat, and then wear white shirts??'

[jcuknz]

As a boatie the first thing I notcied was that they appear to have two electric outboard motors which looked odd to me but if it is an oblong tub perhaps there is sense in that arrangement.
They are so 'far away' and a crop from the bottom would bring them nearer and avoid having chopped the reflection of the standing guy off at the neck
I guess it is what you get when all you have is a standard lens on the camera with little reach to pick out the essential element of the photo but I have a x10 back from a x12 zoom [ 430mm AoV ] which influences what I shoot and what I think is a good shot.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Tim,

My belief (not everyone agrees), is that output sharpening is the most important thing, this should be applied after downsizing to the web display size.

I am not sure at which stage you applied the 148% and 3.5 radius sharpening - i.e. before or after the downsize to the 690px × 460px we see here. I suspect it was before downsizing, but the result is actually OK for this size of reduction from your original. In short; if my suppositions are correct, I think you 'got lucky' (because the radius before downsize worked out to be about the right (smaller) radius after downsize), but it isn't the way I'd do it.

You could read this thread, which is as good an explanation of sharpening workflow (with examples) as you're likely to find - that said, I personally rarely bother with capture sharpening, as it 'disappears' when subsequent downsizing is applied. However that's because I very rarely print and always downsize for web publication.

Compositionally, the image would be improved if the bright trunk on left (and its reflection) were not completely cutting off the left hand side, but cropping to remove it loses too much. I more complex PP solution is needed, or perhaps a shot timed when the boat was a little further to right.

HTH,

[bugster0121]

"I guess it is what you get when all you have is a standard lens on the camera with little reach to pick out the essential element of the photo but I have a x10 back from a x12 zoom [ 430mm AoV ] which influences what I shoot and what I think is a good shot."

Ty for your response, I had a 50mm 1.8 and and a 18-55 as well. Wanted to get the trees in focus so was worried that if I zoomed, etc... Wonder if the 50 would of caught more details.

Hi Dave:

Yep you nailed it I went straight from lightroom to elements then sharpened then resized for the web. Will re read that article. Was also wondering about that tree on the left. Seemed out of balance to me but thought a tighter crop would of taken out too much maybe tonight will try to tweak it (sharpen after I resize) and try to take out that tree somehow, my PS skills leave much to be be desired. Thanks a bunch.



Tim

[MrB]

It is a shame that the fisherman's reflection was cut off. The composition that works best for me now would have to be a crop that removes most of their reflections and the distracting tree on the left.
E.g. -



This would still leave you about 12 of your 18 MP - plenty enough to make a good size print.

Philip

[rpcrowe]

[QUOTE=jcuknz;345018]As a boatie the first thing I notcied was that they appear to have two electric outboard motors which looked odd to me but if it is an oblong tub perhaps there is sense in that arrangement.

It looks to me like there is a hand steered electric motor on the aft of the boat and a foot steered positioning electric motor at the bow. The fisherman will perch on the seat just aft of the standing fisherman and maneuver the boat exactly where he wants it using the foot controlled positioning motor.

The aft electric motor is more powerful and can move the boat along fairly well - especially over short distances and the whole rig can fit in the rear of a pickup truck and can easily be handled by two men. While this craft is not particularly seaworthy, it is great for small lakes and ponds and doesn't cost a king's ransom to buy or maintain.

I agree that white shirts are not the ideal for this type of fishing.

I agree with Phillip's crop and would probably have shot this with a bit longer focal length than 75 mm.

[Wavelength]

Nice

[bugster0121]

I like your crop Philip. Here is a similar crop with the sharpening recommended by Dave except the final output sharpening I could not quite figure how to get Lightroom or Elements PS to do the bicubic reduction when I resized it and saved it as another JPEG.




Richard: I am not a boatie so.... but the white shirts with the camo boat I agree strange.
Thankyou Nandakumar and to all who have viewed.

[MrB]

The crop and composition in Post #6 just seems to look right to me but, according to the compositional guidelines, there are probably several reasons why it works for me:



The line of balance for the boat and fishermen lies along the left vertical third. The tree line rests along the lower horizontal third. The diagonal formed by the two men leads the eyes up to the autumn colours of the leaves mainly in the top third, confirming the title of the image. The right hand third gives the fisherman the space and water in which to fish. The strip of darker water below the boat's reflection helps to reassure the perception that the boat is 'over there' out on the lake.

Personally, I think it would be great to be able to get the composition right at the time of shooting. However, it seems that often some cropping in PP is needed in order to get my own images to look properly composed. Or is cropping (apart from changing aspect ratio) a routine and common practice for many photographers who are not shooting in a studio?

Philip