Crested pigeon

[Camellia]

I'm looking for feedback on the sharpening and noise reduction I've done on this photo in ACR.



Details are:
Camera Model Canon EOS 500D
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/400
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
ISO Speed 800
Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Focal Length 400.0mm

Sharpening:
Amount 100
Radius 1
Detail 25
Masking 0

Noise reduction:
Luminance 27
Luminance detail 50
Luminance contrast 0
Colour 25
Colour detail 50

Thanks!

R

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Raylee,

Lovely shot. Great colour and detail. I was trying to get an image of these guys but did not realise at the time my 70 - 300 lens was not auto focusing properly at the time so missed them all.

[Pohled]

Very nice bird!
It seems like a punk rocker Is it typical of Australia?

[jeeperman]

I like it, very nice shot. I think you have done well in your PP as well. It is shap but not overly so.

[tameigh]

I am new to this, and PP, but for what it is worth, I think the background is *too* blurred. I find it distracting, as if it were shot in front of a curtain or something. The bird itself is great.

[Camellia]

Very nice bird!
It seems like a punk rocker Is it typical of Australia?

That's right - we're all old punks down here! Well, some of us...

[Dave Humphries]

Looks pretty good to me Raylee, I'd be happy to show that here, well done

[Camellia]

Looks pretty good to me Raylee, I'd be happy to show that here, well done

Thanks Dave - I'm simply judging what looks good and what doesn't when I'm doing sharpening or noise reduction, so I was keen to find out if I'd gone too far.

Thanks everyone!

R

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Raylee,

Something you could try when sharpening in RAW is blowing it up to 100% and holding the ALT key and moving the mask slider across. The screen starts out all white, meaning everything is sharp, and slowly gives way to a mixture of black and white – where the back area is not sharpened. You will find a background blurred like this goes black very quickly so any sharpening you do does not affect any noise in that area. The more you push the slider the more the high contrast edges are the only things sharpened. This leaves room to for output sharpening later on.

[Camellia]

Hi Raylee,

Something you could try when sharpening in RAW is blowing it up to 100% and holding the ALT key and moving the mask slider across. The screen starts out all white, meaning everything is sharp, and slowly gives way to a mixture of black and white – where the back area is not sharpened. You will find a background blurred like this goes black very quickly so any sharpening you do does not affect any noise in that area. The more you push the slider the more the high contrast edges are the only things sharpened. This leaves room to for output sharpening later on.

Thanks Peter! I'll try that out.

R

[Colin Southern]

Hi Raylee,

I do everything I can in ACR - except sharpening.

Basically, most images need 3 sharpening passes (minimum) for optimal sharpening ...

1. Capture sharpening (typically 0.3 pixel @ 300% @ threshold 0 (at base ISO) (which ACR can't do because it has a minimum radius of 0.5 pixel)

2. Content / creative sharpening (applied before any resampling; can be anything, but 40% @ 4 pixel is often a good starting point)

3. Output sharpening (prior to printing or after resampling). After resampling for online display, 100% @ 0.3 is what I typically use - but - I use bicubic smoother as the algorithm.

Keep in mind that sharpening and noise reduction are in essence opposites; normally you shouldn't need noise reduction unless the shot was taken at a high ISO and excessively cropped, or severely under-exposed. I NEVER use it.

[Camellia]

Thanks Colin. So all of your sharpening in done in photoshop itself? I've used the unsharp mask in photoshop. I'll have a play and come back to you with any questions.

Thanks again!

R

[Colin Southern]

Hi Raylee

So all of your sharpening in done in photoshop itself?

Yes; ACR sharpening "misses the boat" in my opinion.