Help,I'm not clear

[jaab]

Gday
I'm hopeing for advice.Photos taken with new 300mmDA lens but not pin sharp.Images slightly cropped to show detail on birds.I have heard about some compensations possible on the camera??Im fairly new to digital.The images were taken in overcast light in early morning.Camera k10d thanks in advance.
cheers

[X Man]

Hello,

Welcome. First, I tried looking at the EXIF data on the photos you've posted but the info has been stripped. There are a number of things going on though I suppose.

First, I'll assume these were hand-held? So, the sutter speed was probably getting pretty slow. Even with SR on it's not easy to hand-hold a 300mm lens and get sharp images in low light. I'd say at the very least a 250th is as slow as practical. Second, the images are under-exposed which can create shadow noise.

It's really not possible to asses the situation without that exif data. F-stop, shutter speed, ISO.... So, I'd like to see that info and go from there.

Regards,
Mike

Originally Posted by jaab

Gday
I'm hopeing for advice.Photos taken with new 300mmDA lens but not pin sharp.Images slightly cropped to show detail on birds.I have heard about some compensations possible on the camera??Im fairly new to digital.The images were taken in overcast light in early morning.Camera k10d thanks in advance.
cheers

[jaab]

Hi Mike
1st image shutter speed 1/250 at f4.shake on ,sensitivity 500 on green mode,muti segment metering and the image tone natural.Second image shutter 1/400 at f4.5.Hope this helps but I cant find the iso rating??Yes it was hand held,thanks Jaab

[rparmar]

X-man has it right. You need a tripod for that kind of shot. 1/250s at 300mm is pushing the limits, unless you have steadier hands than me. Not sure why it underexposed, but it did.

Did you do any post-processing? You will need to. It might help a lot. All digital images can benefit from PP and learning Photoshop or your tool of choice is as important as learning your camera, IMO.

Here's an insanely quick fix which is nowhere near as good as it would be if I had the original RAW file to work with -- noise and other artifacts are noticeable. Also changed the crop -- too bad the tail feathers are not complete. Took me about 60 seconds with my automated workflow.

[X Man]

Originally Posted by jaab

Hi Mike
1st image shutter speed 1/250 at f4.shake on ,sensitivity 500 on green mode,muti segment metering and the image tone natural.Second image shutter 1/400 at f4.5.Hope this helps but I cant find the iso rating??Yes it was hand held,thanks Jaab

Sensitivity and ISO are the same thing.

OK, so we are at the very limits of SR and hand-holding on #1 and we are wide open on both, and even still we are under exposed. Those factors will certainly never produce a pin sharp image.

As rparmar said, a tripod would help greatly or maybe a monopod for portability sake. Also, a shoe-mount flash with a flash extender would gain around 2-3 stops.


Regards,
Mike

[jaab]

Gday
I haven't attempted any pp as I'm fairly new to digital. Photo shop appears to be the process most talked about is it as good as any? Should I bracket the exposure on the camera? I have a tripod on the way. Noise and artifacts are noticable? With pp will raw give a better image to work with? I'm trying to get the best image to start with, then hopfully I can start pp with a better original image. Thanks for your help so far, hopefully I will be able to post are sharp image in the near future. cheers Jaab

[Peter Zack]

As for RAW vs Jpeg's you might find this helpful:
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/p...-benifits.html

As for the shots in question. ISO (sensitivity) data would help. You probably could have increased the ISO to give you a little more latitude for adjustments. Also was SR on? Photoshop is a fine program but you might find it a bit costly to start out with. There are several freeware programs that you can download. I like Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing which has many of the same features and there are a ton of tutorials and plugins on the forums on that site. Give it a try and you might find it is all you need for quite awhile.

Bracketing something like this can be a challenge because the subject does not sit still for long. I would say you biggest issue is the f stop here was f4. There are very few lenses that are at their best at the widest settings and stopping down 2-3 stops will greatly improve the sharpness and overall picture quality. So increase the ISO, stop down the lens a little and then maybe boost the eV setting 1/2+ to get a slightly better exposure.

This shot was with the older FA*300mm f4.5, stopped down to f8. Granted the light was better, so I had more 'room' to make adjustments but it shows what is possible.

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

[rparmar]

Originally Posted by jaab

I haven't attempted any pp as I'm fairly new to digital. Photo shop appears to be the process most talked about is it as good as any?

Photoshop is the professional's choice, but it is very expensive. I have obtained some Adobe products over the years at student rates, which helps a lot. Elements supposedly has most of the same functionality, and then there's Lightroom, which is designed for photographers specifically. I am not in a position to compare these.

Of course there is open source software as well. The Gimp is supposed to be quite good.

Originally Posted by jaab

Should I bracket the exposure on the camera?

If you have the opportunity, why not?

Originally Posted by jaab

Noise and artifacts are noticable?

I said this in regard to my own modification of your photo. It doesn't look so hot because all I had to work with was the small JPG.

Originally Posted by jaab

With pp will raw give a better image to work with?

Generally, yes. I shoot everything RAW because I know any "keeper" images will need PP anyway, at least to adjust levels, contrast and sharpness.

[jaab]

Gday
Thanks Peter, paint.Net has opened up a whole new world. I didn't realize what was out there and free.Thats a excellent photo you have there.I will make some more adjustments with my camera.Thanks rparmar I will shoot some raw and try it on paint,
cheers Just A Average Bloke( JAAB )

[cupic]

Originally Posted by jaab

Gday
Thanks Peter, paint.Net has opened up a whole new world. I didn't realize what was out there and free.Thats a excellent photo you have there.I will make some more adjustments with my camera.Thanks rparmar I will shoot some raw and try it on paint,
cheers Just A Average Bloke( JAAB )

Thats the aussie spirit

Mine own have been hit and miss in the sharpness dept,but shoot and more shoots will benefit the learning curve

Welcome JAAB (I love the username,original)and we all look forward to your future projects


cheers

[borno]

Hey jaab,
Birds are a tough subject, and it's tough to get the focus perfect with the lens wide open. I try to use f5.6- f8 if I can and with my k10d I try to keep the iso at 400 or less (if possible)that's not easy sometimes. I also have the AF button to cancel autofocus so I can fine tune the focus because the AF area is pretty large and I try to get the eyes in focus. The AF button tip has really helped me because sometimes I want to keep the camera in AFC in case he takes off, but want to compose and focus when the subject isn't right in the center AF point. Crazy looking bird BTW

[jaab]

Gday
Just had some success with paint.net,still to get outside as we have had snow and rain all day.This is a pre advice image. thanks again.Jaab

[Peter Zack]

I should update the earlier post. Paint.net has a PEF RAW plugin but I find it changes the colours and I don't use it. So you have 2 choices. Shot in RAW PEF and use the Pentax browser to convert your files to TIFF's for editing. A TIFF is an Adobe standard and is a lossless format that allows quite a bit of editing without loosing image quality. The files are big (from a K20D they can be bigger than 80mb) but open quickly on PN and can be saved in almost any format.

Or you can shoot in RAW DNG which is the Adobe standard RAW file system. The files will be about 25% larger on the SD card so you have less shots per card but these files open directly in PN although they are a little slower to open. Then save the edited file to a new file and you still have the RAW to go back to.

Here are a few good plugins for PN. Just find the "effects" folder for PN in Windows Explorer and add the plugins to that folder.

Paint.NET • View topic - BoltBait's Plugin Pack - Feather, Transparency, Flip, Pastel

[rparmar]

Originally Posted by jaab

Just had some success with paint.net,still to get outside as we have had snow and rain all day.This is a pre advice image.

That's a pretty cute bird and seems to be better exposed and sharper than the first batch of images. I am sure that will come out quite nicely.

[Peter Zack]

here's another plugin pack you should add to PN. It has Sharpen+ and some other advanced settings. The Sharpen + works basically the same as PS and can be fine tuned much better.
Paint.NET • View topic - Tanel's Photo and Color Plugins (2008-08-31)