Wildlife Photography across the Water: Image Sharpness

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Image Sharpness

I am finally sitting down and getting on with some proper processing to try and shift the huge backlog of images i have and get them out to agencies after all they will not bring any money in sitting on a hard drive, One thing that you need to do is after you have done your adjustments is to increase the image to 100% on your screen and look all over for dust spot and remove them, Now when your image is at 100% its very big on the screen and it gives you a good chance to make sure that the image is critically sharp-not just nearly sharp or pretty good as that will not do but perfectly sharp, anything else and its for the bin, Out of the
40 000+ images taken in Japan i have around 1000 images to process, The rest were deleted for being either not being critically sharp, badly composed i.e bird in flight or i have just picked the best of a series of shots,
So i processed this image

and at 100% on my screen i got this

Not just sharp but beautiful as well, If a client wants to crop the original image heavily they can and still have a beautifully sharp image which is very impotant

When i shot the Snow Monkeys in Japan i mainly used my D3s with a 24-70 or 70-200 and the images are absolutely beautiful and incredibly sharp, The 24-70 is probably my favourite lens, I also had a tripod set up with the D7000 and 200-400 on it and again beautiful files that i have no problem sending out or printing up large
Here is another

and 100% crop

As you can see i have used fill flash on the above image, The use of flash also helps freeze the subject and give a perfectly sharp image, By looking at your images at 100% you can see if they are critically sharp and if not then you need to look at the techs i.e focal length used/shutter speed etc and try to find the reason why you are not getting perfectly sharp images, You do not need to own and use pro gear to get sharp images although it does help in difficult situations
In my next blog i will show you some of the difficulties in getting these snow monkey images

Dave

1 comment:

Bobbster13 April 2011 at 16:43
Stunning images Dave the one is the water is my favourite though, 40,000 images wow some sorting to get done there!!!
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.