Golfinch in flight

[GallenWolf]

Super shot! How did you make it? With regards to your question: did you have lens stabilization engaged? IMO anything faster than 1/1000, lens stabilization occasionally softens the image. At least for my nikkors anyway..

Alvin

[Geoff F]

I haven't tried Paint Shop but I know that a lot of people use it.

The main thing is to read the Help pages very carefully. Being from a pre digital age myself, I find that I have to print everything and read it from a paper copy otherwise it just doesn't sink in.

Then have a look at some of the free on line tutorials. I recommend Cambridge in Colour and Luminous Landscape but there are a lot of others available. Shutterbox has also helped me.

And, of course, you can always ask here if there is anything you don't understand.

[colincurry]

Epic

Colin

[colincurry]

Originally Posted by Geoff F

Choosing camera settings is always a bit of a quandry and there will usually be some trade off to be made somewhere.

Dropping to say 1/1500 and reducing aperture size to say F8 would certainly help with the depth of field. Alternatively, keeping a higher shutter speed plus a reduced aperture and a higher ISO would also have been an answer; although you could run the risk of creating some background noise.

But that image, if it hasn't been too heavily edited, doesn't look too bad to me and I think that a little bit of careful sharpening would work wonders on it.

Have a read of this article Tutorials - Sharpness then move on to their Using Unsharp Mask page.

Depending on whether this bird has been sharpened already; I may well create a duplicate layer, add a hide all mask then gradually reveal the unsharp portions with a soft brush, and finally give the layer (with only the bird visible and with variable amounts of opacity as required) a good Unsharp Mask sharpening.

A simple cheat which I frequently use in situations like this is: Draw a freehand selection around the bird (you don't have to be exact so long as you are slightly outside the bird edges) then feather the selection, about 5 pixels should do. Use an unsharp mask of say 80% with 1 pixel radius and 1 level of threshold. That should sharpen the bird without creating background noise.

My usual settings are for zero in camera 'enhancement' of sharpness and saturation. After importing the image I give it a little bit of Unsharp Mask before doing any editing; 250-300% at 0.3 pixels is a good starting point which firms up the image and increases saturation without causing any problems. That's what the professionals do - or so I am told.

Interesting to read about the speed and aperture. I have been using 1/1000 on TV which sets the 'most appropriate' aperture according to the conditions. With the new (to me) 40D I have been trying the automatic ISO. Perhaps I should switch to manual 1/1500 f8 and see what happens.

None of this detracts from what is a cracking shot and one I would be proud of.

Colin

[wyevilla]

What a shot!

Fantastic