[Boofers]

Shot at about 35 feet away, a little closer than my other pic. Only applied noise ninja. Looks a little better to me. I think my camera dosen't like to focus on red. Any ideas
[IMG][/IMG]

[_MB_]

an improvement but still soft. Exif details?

[Chris H]

Modified slightly click here to see


The data is definately there to get a sharp image. Do you use any kind of sharpening filter on you photo's or are they as they come off the camera ??

[_MB_]

good fix c-man

[Rob Barron]

That's a definite improvemant from C-man there, and makes me wonder what is happening here as there is sharp detail coming out with USM. C-man have you done anything else to this like using the HP filter and softlight blending mode to bring out the detail?

Boofers, are you doing anything to these pics or are they straight from camera?

Cheers,
Rob

[Chris H]

Most digital camera's have a filter in front of the sensor chip to stop moire fringes

If you don't have the filter you get some wierd effects like this



Now the problem lies in the fact that the picture then appears out of focus or blurred.

After a conversation with Canon as I was cheesed off with the results from my 350D and a whole lot of great info on another Photography site I came accross this answer.

I always shoot in CS2 raw format, I suppose it depends on your camera whether you do have RAW or not, then in either Paintshop pro or photoshop CS2 you use the

UNSHARP MASK on the sharpen options.

For my 350D I set it to around unsharp level 200 with a 0.5 size pixel setting.

This almost removes all blurry signs. However if you overdo it you tend to get what looks like a shimmer round the edges of things which in my opinion is worse.

Always worth having a play if you get dissapointed. I have used it many times with good results



This picture was sharpened with a level of 200 and pixel size of 0.5 in Photoshop CS2

[Boofers]

I use Noise Ninja adding a contrast adjustment and very mild noise removal. Also using CS3. When using USM, I use smart sharpen. I have been using amount 100 to 200 and pixel at 1.0, I used 0.5 and it made a difference. I don't like halo's, and one formed around the bottom of the branch the birds sitting on so I didn't sharpen this shot.
C-man why I haven't toned the sharpen radius adjustment down just slipped me bye. I will be more alert now. I have used those settings in this shot and I could see the change. Exif data should be with this picture. f8.0 at 1/1500 ISO400.

[IMG][/IMG]

[_MB_]

Why are you using noise ninja? I wouldn't expect to use noise reduction at iso 400 on a 20D, perhaps its something to consider at the end of your workflow, instead of at at the start.

[Boofers]

I use the contrast adjustment like a sharpening tool. It seems to work, I forgot the camera was on 400, I was shooting late evening last time I used it. I really only check my white balance and color luminance values in ACR. The last thing I always do is check the sharpening, Noise Ninja seems to look better most of the time with just the contrast adjustment. I am open to changes, my 2nd picture maybe could have used alittle more sharpening,,maybe I am sharpen shy

[Chris H]

Must admit I have no idea where Noise Ninja is concerned coz I don't got me a copy LOL

What you could try is lowering the ISO to 200 and set your camera to aperture priority.

Knock the F stop down to something like F16

You'll notice the speed come down a lot but by the looks of it the bird is pretty much still.

Then play around, but try using RAW.

Then do some very simple post processing, just maybe an unsharp mask of 200 and 0.5

I've been through the pain myself but I've managed to take a few reasonable shots now, and to be honest I'm pretty pants at photography.

[_MB_]

My workflow for web destined images would be the following:

1. shoot in raw
   
2. modify white balance, colour temperature, exposure if needed in dxo, no sharpening, no curves adjustment.
   
3. Adjust curves, levels in photoshop.
   
4. resize for web.
   
5. sharpen. at this reduced size, something like 90 and 1 in smart sharpen is about the most sharpening I'd do.
   
6. save for web.

I use a 20D too and these steps work well. Really unless underexposing at iso 1600 I wouldn't use a noise reduction program.

[Boofers]

I have used the raw format sence 3 days after I bought my first digital camera, about 6 years ago. The only jpegs I see are on the web or from the wife who shoots jpeg. My work flow is about the same as yours MB other than I finish everything off in full size, then resize for web. Today I went out and shot some more pictures and tried useing my auto focus a little different. I would use my center focus light and set it just forward or near the front plane off of something very near the bird and watch how the bird came into focus. It seems to make a sharper image, I will have to play around some more and practice how I shoot at birds with in 100 feet. Could very well be that I don't really focus my camera right when shooting at birds. This has been an interesting 2nd round of "get your feathers straight" and you'll like your pictures better,,and your processing.
Boofers