Easy Sharpening

[Rita]

Ok, a play on words for the title In practicing my macro on inanimate objects this is just a silly thing I came up with. My focus was on the lead of the pencil.

Hope the lightheartedness is enjoyed.

C&C always welcomed

[Pohled]

Hi,

I liked the composition. I like images of daily things.
Keep on with pictures like this, they simple but very nice =) They remind us that we don't need to go after great landscapes or special places in order to take good photos!

[Rita]

Thanks Jonathan.

[IzzieK]

Rita...if my sharpener sharpens my pencil like that, I'd toss it in the bin. Good shot...nice comp., proper colour matching too.

[Shadowman]

Use an x-acto knife, your pencil will be sharper and adds a bit of danger to your image. Nice effort.

[Rita]

Izzie, that's what you get when you buy a sharpener from the Dollar Store

John, maybe I will go back to the Dollar store and get an cacti knife

[Wavelength]

Rita, may i suggest some points?
I think a well sharpened pencil tip would have been better; you could have kept some pencil skin around instead of keeping the whole thing around; again the skin left on the sharpener looks a bit awkward too.... sorry, if i made you unhappy, which was least of my intention

Regards

[Rita]

Nandakumar, don't be sorry! I am open to feedback and learning and I feel that you have made some valid points

[chauncey]

I'm gonna carp at ya Rita, that is not a crispy sharp image...why? Was it handheld or what?

[Rita]

Hi Chauncey, my camera was sitting on the coffee table at the time of taking the image. I have been having issues with getting proper focus with my macro so this shot was just for practice. I have been trying out different distances etc and this was one of my attempts, my goal was to get the sharpened (?) pencil lead in focus. The results are a clear (no pun intended) message of why I need to practice with my macro lens

[ied]

Thanks for posting Rita. I appreciate that the cc of other members is what opens ones eye to changes for improvement. keep it up.
Irene

[Rita]

Irene, you have that one 100% right. It is one of the main things that I love about this site.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Rita,

Good subject for a practice but I feel the image looks a bit soft. This could be to do with sharpening technique but can also be affected by frontal lighting making it look flat.

If you have a tripod, try similar with natural light hitting your subject from the side.

Grahame

[Rita]

Grahame, here is a new try of the same subject. This time from a different angle and trying your suggestion of some natural light from the side.

[Stagecoach]

Grahame, here is a new try of the same subject. This time from a different angle and trying your suggestion of some natural light from the side.

Hi Rita, this one still looks soft to me. I do not know what the white surface is but if paper (normal white copy type) I would at least expect to see the surface structure of it in a band across the image coinciding with the plane of focus?

Grahame

[Rita]

Grahame, yes, it is on a plain piece of paper. Just for comparison here is the SOOC. The only thing done was converting to jpeg from raw.

[csa mt]

Rita, I love the surprise image! Colors are so vibrant. Another member posted on one of my images:

" how a nice and wise caption can change the attitude of the viewer"

This certainly applies to your caption also. When I clicked on it, thinking it was about "sharpening" an image, I had to grin when I saw the image. Bright spots like this make a great day!

Also, I prefer the original (first image), it's so bright & "happy".

[Rita]

Thanks Carol

[Stagecoach]

Grahame, yes, it is on a plain piece of paper. Just for comparison here is the SOOC. The only thing done was converting to jpeg from raw.

Hi Rita,

If you are 100% positive that there was no movement when taking this and you have not cropped at all it's a good indication of the IQ you can expect to achieve. By image quality for this specific subject all I look at are the very small slithers of lead for which it is known they are going to have very sharp edges and disregarding where the focus actually was although it looks as if you got the lead spot on none of them seem to jump out as reasonably sharp to my eyes.

Having read three reviews on this lens it has been described as an icon and brilliant and having also seen a few macro images from it something does not seem to add up here.

Out of curiosity I took a similar scene today just to see the results, using an aperture that would give very roughly the same DOF result as your f/11;

1.3s, f/22, ISO200, natural daylight. RAW to Jpeg downsized to same as yours, no crop or any sharpening.



My sharpener was brand new, great job on the wood but wrecks the bit you want to use

Grahame

[ajohnw]

The 1st shot posted is in focus as detail can be seen in the pencil lead but at F22. I would seriously wonder about using F22 in a camera with a 16mp m 4/3 sensor if maximum detail is needed but the lead is ok. The 2nd one is at F11 and I can't really tell where the camera is focused. Most probably the tip of the lead but as it's dark no detail can be seen there.

They are a bit strange. 2 thoughts - on a tripod and the shutter released directly rather than using the 2 sec delay intended for that. On a tripod and the IS is one. I have had a strange IS effect hand held but I don't think that has happened - it gives a sort of double image - why is it the IS - because I couldn't move the camera that fast and generate two clearish images.

Processing could improve them even when they are perfect shots. Colin might jump in here as it isn't always a good idea but I've found with macro shots that sharpening in on the full sized image can help retain detail when the shot is reduced. If I do that I usually use a rad of 4 or 5 with a threshold of 1 and around twice the amount I would us on a shot that has been reduced to say 1500px wide. This just crisps the image up. On my scale that's 20 to 25 so the sharpening in is 50 maybe even 60. Only problem is that it is likely to introduce noise in backgrounds but that can be removed with detail sensitive noise removal. It works as a sort of finer detail micro contrast adjustment so that may be an alternative if available.

John
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