So how do I make this better.... (1 Viewer)

birdeast · Sep 19, 2005

I dont know if EXIF info is available, but I believe it was shot at 1/125, f7.1 and ISO400 with Nikon D50 with Sigma 80-300mm DG APO MACRO @ 300mm.

I ran it through RAW Shooter and then a little unsharp mask in PS.

I find myself getting completely lost when trying to adjust these images. I guess it is definitely a process requiring lots of experience. Let me know what I need to do to improve

These little birds are really nice to photograph. They are relatively tame and the colors are so vibrant! It is a Crimson Sunbird.

I know the composition is off on my crop. I am still coming to grips with this 800x800 sizing bit :h?:

Thanks
Scott

birdeast · Sep 19, 2005

Think I cropped the above image too much....I can see jagged edges around the head! Can someone also give me a few pointers on how to achieve an 800x800 image without 'over-cropping'???

Thanks
Scott

robski · Sep 19, 2005

Not knowing what this bird looks like in the flesh I suspect the colours are over saturating. The ICC profile you are selecting when importing into photoshop maybe be a factor in this. The Adobe profile has the colours toned down compared to the sRGB.

With regard to cropping is the image being down sized or up sized ?

Robert

birdeast · Sep 19, 2005

Sized up....However, it was quite close when the photo was taken.

I want to upload an image that has not been through PS, but it is way to big and I really dont have a clue on how to 'downsize' it to 800x800. That particular image has had the white balance and other parameters automatically set by Raw Shooter.

These birds are very red. I have 2 books on birds of SE Asia and both place this bird on the cover (front or back). Having said that, I do agree that the image looks a bit oversaturated. I just haven't got my eye in tune with reality...

Scott

Recurvirostra · Sep 20, 2005

birdeast, I suspect you may be confused by the difference between cropping and resizing. It appears to me that you might have cut a 793 x 791 pixel section out of the original, to upload.

To resize an image, crop the original photo so that it looks the way you want it to be (i.e. get rid of any bits around the edges that you don't want to be in the final product). Then, using the Resize option (some photo-editing programmes refer to this as Resampling), set your longest dimension to be 800 pixels. If the long side of the original is longer than that, which it almost certainly will be, then the resizing method to select should be Weighted Average. Weighted Average is used when decreasing the size of the image and Bicubic if increasing.

After this process, you will still have the nicely composed photo that you want, but instead of it being, say, 2400 x 1800 pixels, it will be 800 x 600.

Looking closely at the bottom left-hand corner of your photo, there is some very blocky colour banding visible. This seems to indicate that the image may have been down-sampled to quite a bit smaller than 793 x 791 at some stage and then resized up again. This would explain the jagged edges that you mentioned. Or maybe over-agressive jpeg compression has been applied?

birdeast · Sep 20, 2005

OK....I did some automatic adjustment in RAW shooter and adjusted white balance. I then sent to photoshop where I re-sized to 800x500 pixels and applied some unsharp mask.

Is the attached image better?? (o)<

birdeast · Sep 20, 2005

Here's the same image with some cropping

Thanks Avocet for the tips :t:

Recurvirostra · Sep 21, 2005

I think there has been a big improvement in the quality of the first image - and it's nicely composed too. A rather pleasing photo! |=)|

With the second image, (also a nice composition) I would have cropped the original image first and then resized the crop (rather than just cropping the already resized image). That way you would have had the same resulting image but with better resolution - maybe as much as 800 x 800, depending on the resolution of the original photograph.

What was the resolution of the original? Knowing this we could quickly calculate the maximum possible resolution of your final cropped image.

birdeast · Sep 21, 2005

3036 x 2010 is the image size in post number 6.

I adjusted the raw photo with raw shooter before saving it as a 'maximum' quality jpeg and then I cropped and re-sized it in photoshop

By the way, thanks for taking the time to help me with this :bounce:

Scott

birdeast · Sep 21, 2005

here is one more attempt

Recurvirostra · Sep 22, 2005

Yeah, that's the one, Scott! You now have the cropped image you want with the maximum allowable BirdForum width.

Having reached this point, you may now want to use some of the other powerful PhotoShop tools to tweak the image a little more. I have taken the liberty of playing around a little with your final image to see if it can be improved some more. The main things were to lighten up the background a bit so that the bird stands out a little better - particularly the tail, and to apply some sharpening.

Of course, what I might think is an improvement, someone else may think has the opposite effect. It's pretty much a personal thing.

Normally you would make these adjustments after cropping but before resizing to get a better result again.

birdeast · Sep 22, 2005

John,

Thanks very much for your input. I am going to keep playing around with the tools until I become confident with my editing skills

Next time you need some specific assistance that you think I might assist you with, PM me (just to make sure I notice your post).

Scott

robert s · Sep 25, 2005

great shot

All`s well that ends well beautifuil shot. :hi:

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