Actually there's only a small amount of sharpening used on the image as
a whole, I made three layers, the bird's wing and body were pretty
sharp, but I removed a bit of motion blur, maybe about 1 pxls worth that
I under compensated for in the pan. It's head was moving in a slightly
different direction so I removed a bit more in that axiss to try to
sharpen up his eye, (the beak suffered a little however). The
background didn't receive any sharpening at all. I then blended the
three images back together to try to minimize edge artifacts, and hit it
with a bit of USM mostly to increase contrast a bit due to the reduction
in size to the half mp image displayed. The harshness of the background
is entirely the water plants and the pan.
frank theriault wrote:
On 9/29/05, P. J. Alling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I was out to take a few waterfall photos at an old mill that's been
converted into a house, (it's for sale if anyone has a couple Million
dollars they want to spend), when I was taken entirely un-awares by this
guy who just about jumped into my face on takeoff. I didn't have the
lens I would have wanted with me let alone mounted on the camera, and I
was set up for more or less static subjects but still managed to get off
a few shots. His plumage isn't too blown out in this one, and I managed
to get a pretty good pan as he made his get away.
http://www.mindspring.com/~webster26/PESO_--_egret_x_2.html
Technical Data:
Pentax *ist-D ISO 400 @ 1/400sec
smc Pentax 28-200mm f3.8~5.6AL[IF] @ 200mm f9.0
Notes:
A small amount of manipulation was done with Focus Magic to minimize
some camera movement.
This is a crop of about 2/5 of the original frame.
I like it a lot.
Only niggling criticism is that I find the green background (I'm not
calling it bokeh, since it's largely motion blur) to be a bit harsh,
but I'm not sure if it's the lighting, oversharpening, the lens, or
something else.
No big deal, though, as it's an outstanding photo, otherwise. Good
blur always works, and this is good blur...
cheers,
frank
--
"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
--
When you're worried or in doubt,
Run in circles, (scream and shout).
