Bluetit processing critique

[Tobyh]

Hey all,

Over the last couple of years I've been slowly changing the way I process my images and I'd like to think it's been an improvement. However the wife, always one to share her opinion freely, commented that she actually likes softer images and pointed to the site I was looking at. I explained it was probably due to the site resizing the image rather than deliberately being left a little soft but it did get me thinking. Sharpness for me has been a learning curve that i've tried to climb - have I been a bit obsessed I wonder?

I just grabbed a random image that reminded me which is posted below. I won't explain at this point what I've done other to say nothing has been cloned out.

I'm interested to hear how others feel about the image. Too much? oversharpened? Feel free to be honest as long as it's constructive criticism.



Taken with a D300 and Sigma 300mm f2.8. No converters for once!

TobyH

[Tormentil]

It's a very good image and doesn't look over sharpened to me.

I don't use a lot of sharpening; usually 100% @ 0.5 radius with two passes.

The last few months I've been using PhotoKit Sharpener, which gives a much wider scope than PS's USM and the ability (with it's brushes) just to sharpen the bits that I want to sharpen.

[slimrbp]

Hi,

I agree the sharpening of the BT looks ok to me, did you use a mask? I think a little noise has crept into the background (not huge amounts thoughh).
Sharpening can be a subjective thing depending on the subject, I think in this case it is fine, but for example on a shot of a juvenile BT I took recently I toned doen the sharpening as people tend to think of young birds as 'fluffy' and too much sharpening can take this away.

One final comment and I will caveat this by saying I am at work using an uncalibrated monitor so this could be complete bunkum!
To my eye there might be a slight blue colour cast.

I like the shot thought, especially the 'pose'.

[Tobyh]

Thanks for the replies you two.

Ben - I'll check that out, I have a feeling I've seen it before but can't remember how I felt about it

Richard - good point about the young birds, certainly a situation where sharpening could detract from the required feel of the shot. I did use a mask and there was some noise reduction applied although I'm not too stringent on that.

I tend to sharpen twice - once at full size before I take it away for noise reduction and then after the image has been resized and at that point I tend to use a mask for the sharpening.

TobyH

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by Tormentil

The last few months I've been using PhotoKit Sharpener, which gives a much wider scope than PS's USM and the ability (with it's brushes) just to sharpen the bits that I want to sharpen.

That's what I use. It gives so much flexibility.

Jim

[matt_xyz]

I assume people are clicking on the image twice to see it full size (1200px) - otherwise they're looking at the version resized to 880px by the WAB software, which does always soften images. The sharpness of the 1200px version looks about perfect to me.

Matt

[Ollie]

Looks good to me no signs of over sharpening on my monitor. Nice work

[pressld2]

Another vote for "spot on" from me. Oversharpening is a pet hate of mine (in spite of the fact that I've been guilty of it myself in the past) but this shot looks excellent.

Dave P.

[Tobyh]

Thanks for the encouragement guys, at least that helps me know that what I'm seeing is how others perceive it too.

TobyH

[Jim Ford]

I would say that on my calibrated monitor the image looks as if it could benefit from levels adjustment to introduce some whites and lifting the midtones.

Jim