New Lens Arrived Part 2
 

Finally a proper chance to test my new kit out. We visited Woburn Safari Park today and had a very enjoyable time, highly recommended.
You can see the shots on my flickr stream...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckerry/

Some interesting shots, but I am sorry to say that you have pushed the saturation, contrast and sharpening much too far [no]

Any chance you could post a from-the-camera version of one of the shots, so we can see a "before and after" ?

I presume you are shooting in JPEG - if so, what in-camera settings are you using, and how much post processing did you do on those shots?

I have? http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/blush1.gif
Yes, shooting jpg at the moment, I know I should try raw some day. No other settings changed. Editing was a case of curves adjustment then sharpening, nothing more.

Here is a comparison for you...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckerry/2514140767/sizes/o/
http://www.myizzywizzy.com/pictures/other/notedited.jpg (Resized only)

I remember some pictures taken a while back you commented on the same thing, maybe its just something I do without noticing it...

Shooting JPEG is just fine. When I used to shoot JPEG though I put all the camera JPEG settings on 0 (neutral), and did what I wanted in post-processing. Working on the principle that my eyes, together with Photoshop could do a better job than a few "one-size-fits-all" algorithms in the camera.

In that particular example you posted, the sharpening is actually pretty much OK. (maybe just a tiny bit too much).

On many of the other shots - especially the peacock ones, the sharpening is pushed a little too much, as you can clearly see sharpening halo's round the the birds. This one in particular is a good example - see the white outline around the birds head - thats a sharpening halo:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2201/...651d39.jpg?v=0

When sharpening in Photoshop, I find the following setting work really well for most images:

- Unsharp Mask (never use the regular sharpening tool).
Amount: 50-80% depending on the image.
Radius: 0.6 pixels
Threashold: 0

Also, remember when using curves that less is more. Most images well benefit from a very slight S-curve adjustment, - with the emphasis on SLIGHT. If you overdo it then you'll blow the highlights, and swamp the shadows in darkness.

Also remember that sharpening should be the last step in your workflow, as its a descructive action. If you do other actions after the sharpening, then you increase the chance of artefacts showing up on your images.

The brightness is pushed too much mainly as a result of you being a bit generous with the curves adjustment. Don't be afraid to use the shadows/highlights tool also (usually only 1-3% adjustment is needed max) - as this will help you get more details from slightly overbright highlights or over-dark shadows. Remember though that it won't fix BLOWN highlights or shadows, as when they are blown, the data is gone for good (which is why exposing well at the point of taking the shot is so important).

I''ll try to take your advice on board, as thinking about it and comparing with those settings, they do look a little more natural and better. Just have to remember to restrain myself in Photoshop http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/blush1.gif

Ok, I have gone through the shots again and uploaded the new versions. Should be better now.

Glad to see you're using your new equipment....
Very nice shots, thanks for sharing.

put my new lens to some use today, didn't get to use it as much as i'd like to have as most of the enclosures were fenced in but i had a good view of the tigers and managed some half decent shots (still getting some real problems with overexposing though, problem being the image looks great on the screen until you see it on a monitor and the flaws become obvious.)

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/5136/del1rm4.jpg


http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/4171/del2nw2.jpg


http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/913/del3yf8.jpg



http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/7125/del4oz7.jpg



http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/6629/del5tm9.jpg

Whoa these do look awesome! great work![thumbup]

Very nice, least your ones were doing something more interesting than just sitting there. You say about overexposing, I see you are using iso 800 on all of those shots. A bit high for daylight?

i was going between dark areas and couldn't be arsed to change it, i'm stopping it down to around F.10 aswell due to some real softness i've experienced at higher apertures so i though sod it and kept the aperture pretty narrow (haven't a clue atm what a good number would be for this, probably need to do some testing and see the pro's and cons but i stayed on the safe side for those pics anyway)

For most lens F8 is the sweet-spot in terms of sharpness. Go much beyond that and diffraction can affect the image. At F10 and above, you are also more likely to see any dirt spots that might be present on your sensor.

Beautiful pictures guys! [shocked]

actually on that note iirc a review specified it's best to keep the aperture around F8 to keep sharpness, i can't remember if that was specifically for the tele end or not so in general is it a good idea to keep away from the widest aperture settings irregardless? (just thinking about the lens' that go down to f1.8 etc, do you still get a useable shot from it?)

2 other shots:

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6192/del6vt8.jpg



http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2589/del7sf8.jpg





that last shot was taken through a fence which gave some shitty results, i've tried my best to crop out most of the obtrusiveness and use some other tools to get rid of the fence, is there any other ways to make it look any better (original shot looked like below)

http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/6950/del8lk7.jpg