[Canada_Rockies]

Yesterday, 7 May 2010, at 6:42 pm Mountain Time, I attempted to photograph these geese. Of a dozen or so photos, this one was the best. The focus point is way in front of the geese, which I have not yet identified.

Here is the original. K10D, ISO 400, M 400/5.6, F 1.7X AF, RAW:PEF, 1/250", f/5.6 (Effective f/9.5). We don't remember ever seeing any geese other than Canada Geese stopping here on their migration. I will attempt to identify them and edit this post.



And here is the crop that I used



And here is where I got with Focus Magic after about 15 minutes on my first try.



I'm not overly happy with the results, but they do appear better than the original. I think I need a lot more practice.

[Eruditass]

It's no magic bullet, but does help is the focus is slightly off.

It appears it changed the colors, though?

[Class A]

It appears it changed the colors, though?

FocusMagic doesn't change colours.
This must be the result of a different JPG conversion.

[wildman]

Snow Goose?

[Eruditass]

How does it look full-size or less cropped?

FocusMagic doesn't change colours.
This must be the result of a different JPG conversion.

I said it in jest, I know it doesn't change colors and figured I'd point out that he used processed it in some way along with FM

[Canada_Rockies]

It's no magic bullet, but does help is the focus is slightly off.

It appears it changed the colors, though?

Actually, I changed the colours. I should have noted that. I used Lightroom to change the white balance to correct. It was a very dark, cloudy day. It was starting to spit snow by the time I had taken the last shot, and it was quite late in the day (6:42) at altitude (3,800 ft). If you look at the first and second examples, the geese are blue.

FocusMagic doesn't change colours.
This must be the result of a different JPG conversion.

Not the conversion. I did the white balance after Focus Magic.

Snow Goose?

As near as my have found so far, the closest matched photos on line are Lesser Snow Geese, but I am not overly confident with that. The flock is extremely small for those, and they have been there for three or four days. Yesterday was the first day that I could stand the weather and had the time to head out. At 3,800+ ft in the Rockies North of the 49th parallel, we see snow on the hills 12 months a year.

I'm hiking with a group tomorrow that includes a biologist and I'll ask her to have a look and/or recommend someone else who would have an idea.

Thanks for commenting, folks. My apologies for not doing the white balance first. I was not at all sure that Focus Magic could do anything with the 10 or 15 feet of front focus. This is my first real pass with it. I see possibilities, but this is a real hard test for any piece of software, even if someone did know what they were doing.

[Canada_Rockies]

How does it look full-size or less cropped?


I said it in jest, I know it doesn't change colors

It looks more out of focus the bigger it is. The first image is what I got in camera, resized for the forum. The JPEG export has added the "grain"/"noise".
Here's a 100% from the unfixed original. If you want to have a shot at it, I can send you the PEF and let you have at it. The original PEF is only about half that bad for noise. I can even bring the copy back from the import backup to make sure I did nothing else before Focus Magic.

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[Parallax]

The before and after should be apparent.

[Canada_Rockies]

The before and after should be apparent.

Nice work, Jim. It actually did quite a good job, considering what I gave it to work with. The image is actually fairly attractive, and a nice record for us of an unusual bird stopping over.

[Digitalis]

all I can say it doesn't do the chromatic aberrations present in your lenses any favours.

[Canada_Rockies]

all I can say it doesn't do the chromatic aberrations present in your lenses any favours.

I have to continue testing with the 400 + 1.7X. I am getting the idea that they are just not compatible, exactly the opposite effect to what I get with the 1.7X and 50-135. There is a thread about that, and a second outing came up with some good images here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/92900-f-1-7x-a...-50-135-a.html

The CA came from causes completely unrelated to Focus Magic and fully related to the apparatus just behind the viewfinder. Me.

1. CA is a definite problem with the M 400/5.6
2. CA is at maximum wide open
3. CA is there on every lens on out of focus highlight edges, and the geese were not in focus
4. And then I multiplied it all by 1.7 with the converter.

[Class A]

1. CA is there on every lens on out of focus highlight edges, and the geese were not in focus

That's right. Technically its not even CA since CA is defined for the focus plane only.
Even super expensive APO lenses will create colour abberrations outside the focus plane.

[Canada_Rockies]

That's right. Technically its not even CA since CA is defined for the focus plane only.
Even super expensive APO lenses will create colour abberrations outside the focus plane.

I've never seen a term for the out of focus aberrations. I vaguely remember a thread that had a suggestion, but darned if I can remember what the topic was.

[Class A]

I've never seen a term for the out of focus aberrations. I vaguely remember a thread that had a suggestion, but darned if I can remember what the topic was.

Falconeye proposed Color Fringe off the focus plane -- CFoF. Follow the link to see the respective post. The term is a translation of "Farbsäume außerhalb der Schärfeebene", coined by Wieland (Blende8).

[Canada_Rockies]

Falconeye proposed Color Fringe off the focus plane -- CFoF. Follow the link to see the respective post. The term is a translation of "Farbsäume außerhalb der Schärfeebene", coined by Wieland (Blende8).

That's the thread. Good catch.