Post Images here using the power of triangles

[Peter Ryan]

On top of everything else you are enriching my English! Love the expression; thanks.

Hi Donald,

I have played with curves once or twice in Aperture 3, but so much happens all at once that it is a little frightening. What was cool about tonight was that I finally went from tossing one ball in the air to juggling two or three without letting any of them hit the ground. So maybe now I will have the courage to try curves again.

The thing that about DPP that has me confused is the sharpening tool. Actually there are two: Sharpen and Unsharp mask. The Unsharp mask has three controls: Strength, Fineness and Threshold. I figured out that Fineness correlates to Radius but it took me a while to understand that the equivalent of a low radius is a high degree of fineness.
So I was setting Fineness to low numbers when I needed to set them to high. The other tool, Sharpen, has only one control. I don't understand why there are two tools and whether their effect is cumulative or not. DPP only zooms to 200% so I have to look really hard to see what is going on. (It doesn't help that I need new eyeglasses.)
The DPP tutorials on the Canon website don't cover the topic of sharpening.

It is my hope that Apple will get the ACR upgrade for my Canon S95 soon and I can do all this in Aperture, which lets me zoom to 1600% in the loupe so that I can see what is happening at the pixel level and the impact on the view at 100%, both at the same time.

So much to learn, but it is all coming much faster now, with your help.

Janis

Hi Janis,

I agree with Donald, stick to Unsharp Mask and there is a good tutorial here about that and if you search for topics on sharpening here there have been a number. I would also do most of your sharpening at 50% not 200%. You can then see the changes.

Another tutorial using Unsharp Mask is Local Contrast Enhancement, another technique you might like to try.

[ScoutR]

I like this shot and I think it is the triangles that make it. What do you think?


Panasonic Lumix G1: 20mm: 1/500s: f 6.3 : ISO 200: 20mm

Wendy

[Peter Ryan]

I agree Wendy. The contrast of colours accentuates the triangles together the moody sky also work very well and the slight blur in the background keeps the viewer on the trees in the foreground. If you had of shot it with green across the foreground, then the path and the field it would have been flat shot. As it is the eye follows the path then across the trees in the back and rests back with the sharp trees in the foreground. I like it.

[Wirefox]

Peter, I saw this and thought of you

[Peter Ryan]

Peter, I saw this and thought of you

Thanks Steve. I do like this style of work you do. The colour, line and proportions you get are really good. I just notied the refelction I inkg it is) behind the glass as well. Something new Steve, adding some depth.