Posted by John Chapman on July 28, 2006 at 5:52 AM
Hi All
picture taken in Alaska with a Canon mk2n 300mm lens at 400 ISO 1/640 sec. F8. All comments welcome.
I have just started a new website please have a look at it and feel free to make any comments.
John
Aberdeen
Looks a great photograph John, like the website I see you've joined Miguel in smugmug I wonder if it will be more lucrative. My only nit is that I think its a little over sharpened as halos are apparent.
Wish I had one as good.
Hope you enjoyed Alaska - much different to Aberdeen??? You've some nice shots on your site - I particularly like a number of those of your Antarctic trip. How did you end up down that way in 1960 BTW?
I have to agree with Tim as the shot looks a bit oversharpened for my tastes and shows a light halo around the bird.
(PS - wish we could get Harriers within range of a 300 in the UK )
Is it a sharpening halo or the side effect from using shadow recovery? - looks a bit too diffuse for a sharpening halo.
Looks like a well fed bird juding by the crop bulge! - full of lemming?
Mike
Posted by John Chapman on July 28, 2006 at 10:58 AM
Hi Guys
thanks for your comments. I tried to put the picture on UKNP but it refused so I had to reduce the size of the image which I think does not help the image. Thanks for the comments on my new Website . Hi Nick I was working down in the Antarctic and did the winter in 1960 at Leith Harbour South georgia. The trip lasted for 1 1/2 years.
John
Aberdeen.
If the server refuses the image as being too big, then try saving it slightly under the max file size. I found at one time that if I saved stuff as 125Kb (the max size at the time - 200Kb now), then the server would refuse it...if I saved it as 120Kb or 124Kb, then I had no issues.
Where you working with the BAS or on 'fishing'? Must have brought back a few memories for you to return after so long.
Posted by John Chapman on July 28, 2006 at 12:25 PM
Hi nick
I was Whaling. It was a different era at that time. I would not do it now though at the time I enjoyed the experience and it was great to be able to go back down to Antarctica to see things again.
John
Aberdeen.
Hi John, good to see you are back from Alaska. A wonderful photo of the hawk coming at you in a nice angle and still well-lit underneath. Looking forward to see more from your trip. Your web-page is most impressing btw.
Composition wise this is top notch, a super flight shot.
It is let down at the moment by the post processing. It looks a bit pixelated and oversharpened. Is the halo due to sharpening or maybe trying to adjust the shadows on the bird? I would reprocess this image, definitely worth the effort on this shot.
cheers
Sean
Posted by John Chapman on July 28, 2006 at 5:20 PM
Hi Sean it is adjusting shadows that has caused it. By using the Shadow tool I like the exposure that I have gotten. Is there any way round it and have no Halo effect?.
John
Aberdeen.
For this image I would try the following, do a colour select on the background, (that is quite easy in this case and should give you a nice edge outline around the bird), then invert the selection and do the shadow adjust on the bird. Select a radius of between 10 and 20 pixels (on the original sized file) to ensure there are no 'lines' created when you adjust the shadows.
Another method I use is using the lasoo tool to select the shadow area, set the feather amount to 10 to 20 pixels and then adjust the levels of the selected area. Again the amount of feathering is important to avoid creating halo's or lines at the edges of the adjusted area.
There are other methods too such as doing two RAW conversions, one as normal, then one overexposed to bring up the shadows. Paste one as a layer over the other and then use the eraser to blend in the shadow area on the bird, then merge layers when finished.
Generally I just use the lasso tool as for 95% of cases I find this is adequate.
cheers
Sean
Posted by John Chapman on July 28, 2006 at 5:45 PM
Hi Sean thanks for the advice I will try it to-morrow.
John
Aberdeen
An impressive looking species and very nicely photographed too.
I also found the halo surrounding the bird quite noticeable,it doesn't IMHO look like a sharpening issue but more to do with using too high a radius setting in the Shadow/highlight tool,or along those lines if a similar lightening/detail extraction method was used.
Well worth re-processing this one to eliminate this problem.
Discussion
17 repliespicture taken in Alaska with a Canon mk2n 300mm lens at 400 ISO 1/640 sec. F8. All comments welcome.
I have just started a new website please have a look at it and feel free to make any comments.
John
Aberdeen
Wish I had one as good.
Tim
Hope you enjoyed Alaska - much different to Aberdeen???
I have to agree with Tim as the shot looks a bit oversharpened for my tastes and shows a light halo around the bird.
(PS - wish we could get Harriers within range of a 300 in the UK
Looks like a well fed bird juding by the crop bulge! - full of lemming?
Mike
thanks for your comments. I tried to put the picture on UKNP but it refused so I had to reduce the size of the image which I think does not help the image. Thanks for the comments on my new Website . Hi Nick I was working down in the Antarctic and did the winter in 1960 at Leith Harbour South georgia. The trip lasted for 1 1/2 years.
John
Aberdeen.
If the server refuses the image as being too big, then try saving it slightly under the max file size. I found at one time that if I saved stuff as 125Kb (the max size at the time - 200Kb now), then the server would refuse it...if I saved it as 120Kb or 124Kb, then I had no issues.
Where you working with the BAS or on 'fishing'? Must have brought back a few memories for you to return after so long.
I was Whaling. It was a different era at that time. I would not do it now though at the time I enjoyed the experience and it was great to be able to go back down to Antarctica to see things again.
John
Aberdeen.
I agree about the sharpening, nice image though, and a cracking site.
Best wishes
Phil
Composition wise this is top notch, a super flight shot.
It is let down at the moment by the post processing. It looks a bit pixelated and oversharpened. Is the halo due to sharpening or maybe trying to adjust the shadows on the bird? I would reprocess this image, definitely worth the effort on this shot.
cheers
Sean
John
Aberdeen.
For this image I would try the following, do a colour select on the background, (that is quite easy in this case and should give you a nice edge outline around the bird), then invert the selection and do the shadow adjust on the bird. Select a radius of between 10 and 20 pixels (on the original sized file) to ensure there are no 'lines' created when you adjust the shadows.
Another method I use is using the lasoo tool to select the shadow area, set the feather amount to 10 to 20 pixels and then adjust the levels of the selected area. Again the amount of feathering is important to avoid creating halo's or lines at the edges of the adjusted area.
There are other methods too such as doing two RAW conversions, one as normal, then one overexposed to bring up the shadows. Paste one as a layer over the other and then use the eraser to blend in the shadow area on the bird, then merge layers when finished.
Generally I just use the lasso tool as for 95% of cases I find this is adequate.
cheers
Sean
John
Aberdeen
Barrie
Great shot I agree with other comments but this can be put right.
Danny
Major
An impressive looking species and very nicely photographed too.
I also found the halo surrounding the bird quite noticeable,it doesn't IMHO look like a sharpening issue but more to do with using too high a radius setting in the Shadow/highlight tool,or along those lines if a similar lightening/detail extraction method was used.
Well worth re-processing this one to eliminate this problem.