Two more pictures

[Hatem Eldoronki]

Today at Valley Forge, around 7:00am, the sun worked for me!

Please check out these two pictures. Note that one of them is about 8MB!

http://mywpages.comcast.net/eldoronki/friendorfoe.jpg

and,

http://mywpages.comcast.net/eldoronki/goldendeer.jpg

[RichardtheSane]

Nice images ther, and the second is a great composition.
I think you may have over-sharpened the second a little though, just my opinion though :)

[Hatem Eldoronki]

I think I did!
I can't seem to decide on which way to go with sharpening in PS: Unsharp mask or High Pass Filter then soft/Hard light.. I really can't tell if there is a major difference. I used Unsharp mask on those two shots..
Thanks for your comments.

[RichardtheSane]

I always use unsharp mask, but when doing I check various different edges throughout the image to ensure I don't get the sharpness glow around major edges.
Just out of interest would it be possible for you to post the original of the second shot to see how it compares.

:)

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

Hi,

Highpass and than hardlight/softlight is much better than straight unsharpen mask.

Greetings,
Frank

[Hatem Eldoronki]

RichardtheSane wrote:
I think you may have over-sharpened the second a little though, just my opinion though :)

Richard, here is the original sans any processing at all:

http://home.att.net/~hatem/CRW_0445.jpg

[Guillermo Freige]

What do you think of that level of USM ?

http://gfreige.homelinux.org/CRW_0445_small.jpg

The full size image is here (800Kb):

http://gfreige.homelinux.org/CRW_0445.jpg

Applied a 500, 0.3, 0 USM via the Midtone Sharpening Action, and a 500, 0.2, 2 to the backround layer with standard USM.

The resized image has an aditional 200, 0.2, 0 USM after resize to recover detail.

[Hatem Eldoronki]

Almost exactly what I wanted to do, but I somehow ended up as I did. I'll have to play a little more with USM before I post here!
But in any case, I do not see anything saying "Midtone Sharpness" in PS. I have version 7.
Thanks for enlighting me :)

[RichardtheSane]

I certainly can't better your efforts Guillermo, very nicely done. How does midtone sharpening work?

Mcouper, try USM at 175-250% Rad 0.8 and levels 1 on the original, that seemed to get some rather pleasing results for straight USM.

:)

[Guillermo Freige]

The Midtone Sharpening action can be downloaded freely from here:

http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/wf_20/essay.html

I've obtained a similar result with a 300, 0.3, 4 USM, without the action, but with less midtone details and slightly more halo.

[Hatem Eldoronki]

WOW!
I like the Soft Focus Action plugin too! Thank you so much.
You guys have converted me into a message board addict!

[Guillermo Freige]

mcouper wrote:
Canon EOS-10D, 28-135mm IS, 75-300mm IS


mcouper:
What are you doing with MY lenses ?? :)
I've exactly the same two ones (back from 1999), and I almost exclusively use the 28-135. The 75-300 was a previous buy, to complement my old (and crappy) 28-80 USM (now retired except for some flash shots with the internal flash), and almost never use it.

[Hatem Eldoronki]

Gotta imitate the best in order to succeed!
BTW, what do you really think of the S50? I bought one and I returned it like four days later. I thought it sucked so bad..I personally think that the Sony P&S cameras that have the Hologram AF Assist are far more superior to any other amateur cameras. I know that a lot of people develop a semi-religious following to a specific brand, but I just follow results.
So was I really wrong about the S50? Is it better than my Sony F-707?
P.S. I don't mean to start a war over who is better, but I'm just trying to obtain second opinions..

[Guillermo Freige]

I've used the two (a friend's F707 and my own S50) and I prefer my S50 but they are very different cameras. All depends of what you want.

The F707 has the old Sony 2/3" 5MP CCD, instead of the new Sony 1/1.8" 5MP CCD present in the S50/G5, the own Sony V1 and the rest of 5MP cameras. This means a cleaner image at high ISO settings for the F707. The new chip, with its smaller area, is noisier.
The F707 has a flash shoe, a longer and better zoom, but the color rendition is very "sony like" in the reds and greens. Also it always shoot in JPEG and you can't control the contrast or color saturation. Also it has an EVF instead of an optical viewfinder. And is LARGE!! :).
Also it lacks histogram view or highlight overflow blinking alert.
The S50 is noisier, has no external flash, slower, shorter zoom, but has a optical viewfinder, you can control almost everything in-camera, including color saturation and contrast, the colors are more pleasing to me, and 4 things very important to me: RAW file format, pocket size, CF storage, and the same operating modes than my EOS 5 and the EOS 10D. I felt "at home" with the S50 since day one, even before reading the manual, because the was so similar to the EOS 5.

So, probably the F707 is a better CAMERA (in the old "lens/shutter speed/AF meaning of the term, discarding the digital imaging parts), more responsive, better lens and AF, but I prefer the size and digital image features and quality of the S50, despite it's shortcomings as a camera (same meaning than before).

So, to me,there are no doubts. The G5 is a better camera, but I can't slid it in my pocket, and I was replacing my old Sony P1 with another pocket camera, but with the idea to replace my EOS 5 too as far as possible with the new one, until I can buy my own DSLR.
So, to me, the S45/S50 was the answer, and I'm VERY happy with my new camera. Every day with it is more rewarding. In fact I wanted a S45, but S45 stock shortages here and a VERY good price for the S50, decided I'm now a S50 instead of an S45 owner. Yes, is a little noisier, but 5MP are realy useful to make crops :)

[Hatem Eldoronki]

Guillermo Freige wrote:
instead of the new Sony 1/1.8" 5MP CCD present in the S50/G5, -->

A very unbiased opinion. Thank you. But wait, the CCD in the S50 is a Sony CCD?

[Guillermo Freige]

The CCD in almost all cameras is a Sony one, at least in the digicam area :)
The surronding electronics usually not, and because that different camera brands have different image properties, but the CCD itself is the same in a S50, a Sony V1, a Canon G5, a Nikon 5400, etc, etc.
The DSLR area is a very different beast. All CMOS based Canon EOS have a Canon manufactured sensor, and the 1D I think is a Toshiba one (not sure here).