Squirrel, how does this look? + reposts

Two squirrels keep eating bits from the trees that over hang my small back garden. Some of teh branches come very close to the house and from time to time one of the squirrels will come close enough for me to get some shots from my bedroom window. So far they seem to appear late lunch time when the sun is not in an ideal place so they are always in shade. Hopefully I'll get them earlier in the morning at some point when the sun is on the trees properly.

Anyway, not really after critiques for the image but more the sharpening. After yesterdays post about sharpening methods I had a play around with some settings and I think this new way looks sharper but smoother, if that makes sense!?!

So, I thought I'd ask what you good people thought, does this look about right or under/over sharp?

D200, 200-400 VR at 270mm, 1/60 second at f5, ISO 500

This was a shot I took yesterday and sharpened with my usual settings. Different shot I know, so not easy to compare directly but in a rush and forgot to save off the comparison picture of the same scene! oops

Fur detail seems better on the new method (more apparent when comparing the same picture I'll admit)

Hi Richard,

You may get some varying opinions on this, as I believe images often look sharper on a TFT screen than they do on a CRT.

On my CRT monitor I'd say the top image looks just about right,sharp and detailed.

The lower image looks acceptable, but could possibly benefit from just a little more sharpening.


Now that you've mastered the sharpening and in case you didn't realise, you've got quite a pronounced blue cast on both images.I find a fairly good way to get the White Balance looking fairly accurate is to use one of the eye-droppers in the Raw conversion stage (at least in C1).
The top image would be very easy to correct by selecting the squirrels stomach as a fairly good representation of a white area.This will get you very close (if not completely) to a neutral white balance,any further slight modifications could then be made using curves in Photoshop.


Nice shots,btw,love the attractive Autumninal setting.

I'm with Justin on this one. Blue cast is pronounced on my tft.

Rob

Thanks guys, I've got a feeling my monitor is on its way out as I've been having lots of colour cast issues lately that I never used to get. I can't really see them at home then they get pointed out on here, I check them on another screen (like this one at work I'm on now) and I can see them. Going to upgrade my 4 year old Dell for an Imac in the new year though so hopefully that'll help!!

24" iMac screen is very bright, even turned down to it's lowest brightness setting.
Dell 24" screen is superb and just edges the iMac one. I do have reservations about Dell reliability though...one reason I changed to the iMac.

I do agree that the 2nd shot does look softer that the first, but the first one looks a touch soft around the eye, like you've nailed focus on the shoulder and have relied on DOF to carry the focus through to the eye.

John

I have noticed the iMacs are bright as we have a few at work and a friend of mine has the "24 cinema screen. I'd get a calibration tool though to get it right from day 1. I need to upgrade the whole computer so and the iMac is the best solution for the space I have so getting another pc and the Dell monitor is out of the question really. Plus I prefer macs anyway as I use them a lot at work.

John, well spotted with the eye, I only had a few seconds to get teh top shot and did indeed focus on the shoulder!

Hi Richard,

Both are very nice autumnal and environmental shots, however I agree about the blue cast.

Regards Chris
www.c-m-l.com

Had another go with the first image, hopefully this one is a bit better? Slightly easier to see where the cast is once I had seen it for myself at work!

Thought I may was well share the whole series with you...

One more after this...

They are all much of a muchness I know but having a hard time finding a favourite!

A huge improvement without the blue cast. A very fine series of squirrel images - I like the fiest one best in terms of composition.

John