Paddock Buddies

[CaraRose]

This was cropped in from a larger photo since the shadows in the original were fairly harsh. Any comments would be appreciated.

[Seb]

This was cropped in from a larger photo since the shadows in the original were fairly harsh. Any comments would be appreciated.

Hello CaraRose,

This is a fairly compelling picture. I think that you captured the moment well. However the way you have crop the horse at the left seems a bit odd to me. I am trying to figure out if it would be better to crop even closer or to let more of his body in. I am not too sure right now but I think that something should be done in that regard.

Seb

[Seb]

This was cropped in from a larger photo since the shadows in the original were fairly harsh. Any comments would be appreciated.

I hope that you don't mind but I decided to mess with your picture few seconds.

Moreover, I removed colors, applied a level adjustment, a slight unsharp mask and I ended up with a slight crop at the left and the top (I am thinking the neck of the left horse appeared too long with your original crop).

Feel free to comment/agree/disagree!!

regards

Seb

[Toronto iCANd]

I like what you did Seb. Normally I would leave this image in colour, but the colours just don't appear striking enough, and actually dull at best.

I see alot of artifacts (I think thats what they are called) and I'm guessing theyre from conversion?

All in all, great pic.

[Seb]

I like what you did Seb. Normally I would leave this image in colour, but the colours just don't appear striking enough, and actually dull at best.

I see alot of artifacts (I think thats what they are called) and I'm guessing theyre from conversion?

All in all, great pic.

Hello,

This is by all means a kick example, I might have tried to bring less artefacts by using an even weaker unsharp mask but as I remember it (correct me CaraRose if I am wrong!!) she is shooting film and scanning it afterwards. The scan seems to generate is lot of artefacts. Taken alone, a simple B&W conversion can't generate artefacts as far as I know. On the other hand, an unsharp mask can bring artefacts or make the already existing ones more visible.

best regards

Seb

[CaraRose]

I do shoot film and then scan. I figure I'll shoot film until I get enough money saved up to by the new Minolta 7D so I can still use all my lenses , which at my current rate of blowing money on Ebay, is going to be about twenty years down the road. I do wish I had a better scanner. I got a all-in-one printer from Dell free with my new computer, and while it scans better than the old artec we had with the old one, still is pretty lacking. I want a better scanner (or a film scanner), a good photo printer, a good camera backpack for hiking, a better quality tripod, two calling birds, and a partridge in a pear tree. Heh.

Really, the good photo printer and good scanner are up on my list. I figure once I pay the bills from Christmas off, I may get one or the other.

Just curious, what are the type of settings one should use for an unsharp mask? I play with it but really don't entirely know what I'm doing when I use it.

Anyway, I looked at the photo in black and white and wondered how it would look in sepia... what do you think?

[Seb]

I do shoot film and then scan. I figure I'll shoot film until I get enough money saved up to by the new Minolta 7D so I can still use all my lenses , which at my current rate of blowing money on Ebay, is going to be about twenty years down the road. I do wish I had a better scanner. I got a all-in-one printer from Dell free with my new computer, and while it scans better than the old artec we had with the old one, still is pretty lacking. I want a better scanner (or a film scanner), a good photo printer, a good camera backpack for hiking, a better quality tripod, two calling birds, and a partridge in a pear tree. Heh.

Really, the good photo printer and good scanner are up on my list. I figure once I pay the bills from Christmas off, I may get one or the other.

Just curious, what are the type of settings one should use for an unsharp mask? I play with it but really don't entirely know what I'm doing when I use it.

Anyway, I looked at the photo in black and white and wondered how it would look in sepia... what do you think?

Lol! We all want our gears. I have quite a list of things I'd like to get too. The 7D seems excellent, this would be a good move.

About the unsharp mask:
1) You first want to seek for a significant edge in your picture (ex: the limit betwen one of the horses head and the background). Zoom in at 1600% and count the number of pixels in the edge. Then, you divide this number by 5 and it will give you a good value for the radius.

2) The amount magnify the mask effect so a small radius command a good amount and so on. You usually want the amount to be the exact opposite of the radius:
amount= (1/radius)x100 ex: a radius of 0,5 would mean an amount of 200%

3) The threshold will magnify/diminish the effect of the mask and have a direct impact on the grain/noise. The stronger value is 0, the weaker value to be used usually is 10. At 0 you sharpen the edges and you magnify the grain. At 10, you keep the the grain smooth. Above 10 the grain get even smoother but the sharpness of the picture may decrease. I have been advised to use a threshold of 4 with pictures coming from a digital camera or slow film. With fast grainy film, you may go up to 10.

These are general rules that will provide consistent results in most cases. You may play a bit with the values and still get good results. One important thing though: if you have to enlarge or diminish a picture in size, always sharpen afterwards. The effect of the mask would be amplified or diminished if you resize a picture after it's been sharpened.


I think that sepia works well here.

Seb