Am I ruining images?

These 3 pix look clean and crisp to me as posted. But if I zoom in a couple of clicks, they're noisy as all get out! What may look fine to me maybe is making more experienced members or those w/ sharper eyes groan. Just got my new glasses last week so if the images are bad, it's probably the former. Yes, I do some sharpening in ACR and will use highpass filter some, too. Rarely unsharp mask. Try to make them look good to my eyes, but if they're bad, need to rethink. (Disregard the date-just got my 7D back from servicecenter and noticed later the date/time needed to be reset.) Thank you in advance.

IMAGE LINK: http://s602.photobucke​t.com …ed-2_zps5a00bc52.jpg.html

IMAGE LINK: http://s602.photobucke​t.com …ed-2_zpsbbb0b54c.jpg.html

IMAGE LINK: http://s602.photobucke​t.com …ed-2_zps00294265.jpg.html

Look fine to me, I know I'd be happy with them.

I went and downloaded one of the full size images and noise looked well controlled to me. At 100% noise was visible but nothing to be concerned about.

What are you using the images for? Big prints, small prints, web display? Your sharpening and noise control should be done with the final output in mind.

MNElliott wrote in post #15960647
Look fine to me, I know I'd be happy with them.

dalto wrote in post #15960766
I went and downloaded one of the full size images and noise looked well controlled to me. At 100% noise was visible but nothing to be concerned about.

Thank you MNE and dalto-encouraging to hear that maybe I'm not totally off in Left field.

nathancarter wrote in post #15960832
What are you using the images for? Big prints, small prints, web display? Your sharpening and noise control should be done with the final output in mind.

Basically, for display here in bird forum and my own personal satisfaction, improving my skills. May print up some larger prints to hang in the vacation home we're building, but those would be a select few that came out of the camera clean(I happened to do everything right. It does happen once in awhile)

Your images normally look great to me, Rog. In the Finch shots here, it looks like you may have been a little too close with a little too small of an aperture and wound up with the head hair OOF from having the af point on their bodies. Noise looks just fine, at this size, anyway.

Snydremark wrote in post #15960893
Your images normally look great to me, Rog. In the Finch shots here, it looks like you may have been a little too close with a little too small of an aperture and wound up with the head hair OOF from having the af point on their bodies. Noise looks just fine, at this size, anyway.

You too, Eric, are encouraging. Thank you. Also noted the OOF heads on the (Sparrows?). Trying to keep ss up for handheld on an overcast day. Don't expect to reach the skill level displayed here by so many, but if you get satisfied, the fun goes out of it, at least for me. Thanks again.

What? Am I the only one here wondering, "What the heck?"

At 1:1 or greater, these images look terribly noisy and dithered. It almost looks like you ran some artsy-fartsy frosted-glass filter...

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

I see jpeg artifacts as well. Compression/save issues?

Geonerd wrote in post #15961000
What? Am I the only one here wondering, "What the heck?"

At 1:1 or greater, these images look terribly noisy and dithered. It almost looks like you ran some artsy-fartsy frosted-glass filter...

Check to see that the in-camera sharpening is off and even then, try resetting all the camera's parameters to default. I also wonder if one of your programs has suffered a 'bumped' check box that is intentionally dithering or otherwise doing something it shouldn't. Try a no-frills RAW->JPG conversion and see if the problem persists. What sort of PP are you doing?

You're blowing up an already compressed file, not looking at the original file at 1:1. So, you're seeing compression artifacts and such that aren't (shouldn't) be there in the original file.

Rog: Can you upload a full sized original of one of these files to something like Dropbox?

To help you with that use the masking slider in the detail pallet which provides edge sharpening. I usually go about 80. If you hold down the option key (MAC) while using the slider you can see the results.

Also for final sharpening I use this method which is also an edge sharpening process. Highpass is pretty good as well.

http://www.earthboundl​ight.com …search=edge+mas​k&bool=and

my 7D

Also pay attention to your exposures. The 7D is not as forgiving as others due to the pixel density. Underexposing and pushing does not help. The noise in the 3 shots you posted does to look bad to me either.

Snydremark wrote in post #15961168
You're blowing up an already compressed file, not looking at the original file at 1:1. So, you're seeing compression artifacts and such that aren't (shouldn't) be there in the original file.

Rog: Can you upload a full sized original of one of these files to something like Dropbox?

Huh? The dithering present on the large files he linked to looks nothing like any jpeg artifacts I've ever seen...

Agree that if the OP could post a lossless or very high quality jpeg of a small section of one image, that might be helpful.

THe dithering is likely from LR/ACR's sharpening algorithm. When you increase the detail slider, this will occur. As stated above by DigitalParadise, use masking in the sharpening panel to restrict the sharpening to edges. Although I assume it is done to dither the halos that may result from sharpening, I do not like the ACR/LR sharpening approach for this very reason.

Don't zoom in a couple of clicks. Some digital "grain" is probably better than trying to wipe every trace of "noise" out of an image. Even the defocused areas in the background can use a little grain to avoid the plasticky look that results from heavy-handed NR.

kirk

Yeah, looks like sharpening (and NR) settings in LR could be better chosen.