Sheep in the wind

[Doug Kerr]

A handsome family of sheep on a small ranch on the aptly-named Scenic Trail (runs off Ranch House Road!) in Willow Park, Texas (about 6 miles east of our home in Weatherford):

It's the prairie wind - I can't do a thing with it.​

Canon EOS 40D, Sigma 18-200 mm f/3.5-6.3 OS @ 78 mm, f/11, 1/400 sec, ISO 400. 66%x73% crop of original frame, seen at 35% of original resolution.

I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of "sharpness" of the image. I think focus was initially well on, and I applied a little sharpening in post (with another application after downsizing). Perhaps the muted colors contribute to my impression.

As is customary around here, the herd is guarded by a donkey, who came right over to the fence to check me out!

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

Lovely picture Doug, I really like it. Handsome animals indeed.

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Cem,

Lovely picture Doug, I really like it. Handsome animals indeed.

Thanks so much.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of "sharpness" of the image. I think focus was initially well on, and I applied a little sharpening in post (with another application after downsizing). Perhaps the muted colors contribute to my impression.

Hi Doug,

A handsome family indeed. To spice up the image, you could try applying an Unsharp Mask with the settings: Amount 20% , Radius 40 px, Threshold 0. That will adaptively tonemap the image to a higher contrast, and improve e.g. the structure in their coat and in the grass.

Kind regards,
Bart

 

[Doug Kerr]

The donkey on duty

You have press credentials, I assume.​

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

You have press credentials, I assume.​

Best regards,

Doug

That's one mean looking donkey, I'd watch out if were you ;-)

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Bart,

A handsome family indeed. To spice up the image, you could try applying an Unsharp Mask with the settings: Amount 20% , Radius 40 px, Threshold 0. That will adaptively tonemap the image to a higher contrast, and improve e.g. the structure in their coat and in the grass.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Before I proceed, note that my editing is done in Picture Publisher 10, not Photoshop. I do not now how its Unsharp Mask algorithm, and its parameters, compare with those of Photoshop.

In the first presentation, I had applied Unsharp mask to the original image with these parameters: radius=2 px, strength=100%, threshold=0. (No good reason for the choice - I think they were the factory defaults! I have never paid nearly enough attention to the details of sharpening.)

Then, after I downsized, I applied the same again.

This time, I used these settings: Radius 25 px [the greatest allowed], strength=22%, threshold=0. I did not apply any further sharpening after downsizing.

I think this is much better.

Here is the earlier one again, for ease of comparison:

Thanks so much.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Don Cohen]

I agree that this is a nice "family portrait"! I think the image has good potential, and that post-processing is the key. Here's my "version" where I played with tonality (levels, curves and shadows/highlights), along with tweaking color balance (warmed it up a tad), boosting saturation, and localized sharpening to the eyes and heads of the critters.

What do you think?

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Hi, Bart,


Thanks for the recommendation.

Before I proceed, note that my editing is done in Picture Publisher 10, not Photoshop. I do not now how its Unsharp Mask algorithm, and its parameters, compare with those of Photoshop.

In the first presentation, I had applied Unsharp mask to the original image with these parameters: radius=2 px, strength=100%, threshold=0. (No good reason for the choice - I think they were the factory defaults! I have never paid nearly enough attention to the details of sharpening.)

Then, after I downsized, I applied the same again.

I never (ecxept for unusual circumstances like totally OOF images) sharpen before downsampling, to avoid aliasing artifacts. Sharpening after the downsampling is no problem, as long as it's done with a small radius and with care to avoid halo and clipping.

This time, I used these settings: Radius 25 px [the greatest allowed], strength=22%, threshold=0. I did not apply any further sharpening after downsizing.

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough of what I was after, but the 25 radius was intended for the downsampled image. That (large radius, low amount) will result in an adaptive tonemapping rather than sharpening. Small radius sharpening can then be applied to get more punch.

Your adjusted image already does a bit of that, but the effect is not as suble as intended because it was done prior to downsampling, which reduces the effective radius.

Combined with some of Don's adjustments, it's a new image ...

Bart

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Don,

I agree that this is a nice "family portrait"! I think the image has good potential, and that post-processing is the key. Here's my "version" where I played with tonality (levels, curves and shadows/highlights), along with tweaking color balance (warmed it up a tad), boosting saturation, and localized sharpening to the eyes and heads of the critters.

What do you think?

That looks lovely. Thanks so much.

I need to improve my skills with all these tools (and more importantly, tune up my attention to their use!)

Thanks again so much for your help.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Jack_Flesher]

Good to see you doing some actual photography -- keep up the good work!

:thumbsup:,

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Bart,

I never (ecxept for unusual circumstances like totally OOF images) sharpen before downsampling, to avoid aliasing artifacts. Sharpening after the downsampling is no problem, as long as it's done with a small radius and with care to avoid halo and clipping.

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough of what I was after, but the 25 radius was intended for the downsampled image. That (large radius, low amount) will result in an adaptive tonemapping rather than sharpening.

Well, you said that latter, but I missed it's significance!

In this version, there was no sharpening before downsampling, and the recipe I mentioned previously was applied after:

That is a very effective technique.

I'll next work on following some of Don's suggestions, but I didn't want to get too much done in the same "pass".

Thanks again for your help.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Jack,

Good to see you doing some actual photography -- keep up the good work!

Thanks for the encouragement. You guys may make a photographer out of me yet!

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Cem,

That's one mean looking donkey, I'd watch out if were you ;-)

Indeed. Note the focal length - 115 mm on a 0.625-size format ("1.6x").

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Bart,

A handsome family indeed. To spice up the image, you could try applying an Unsharp Mask with the settings: Amount 20% , Radius 40 px, Threshold 0. That will adaptively tonemap the image to a higher contrast, and improve e.g. the structure in their coat and in the grass.

Would this technique with those same parameters be equally expropriate for application to the image at original resolution (not on the way to being downsampled, but in a separate branch of the workflow destined for, for example, printing)?

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Cem,

That's one mean looking donkey, I'd watch out if were you ;-)

Around here, almost every small herd of horses, sheep, or goats (but not so often cattle) has a donkey as a "warden".

In fact, my step-daughter-in-law, who has a few horses at their "ranchette" (about 20 miles north of here), had a donkey for some while. He was very effective in keeping out marauders (there are even still a few coyotes around here, and some horse thieves as well).But pretty soon, he thought he was the boss of the ranch and became a bit hard to manage, so they sold him.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Doug,

This is I think a major highlight in your work. I really like the fact that you are working with what is there and the pictures are more about life of the family, than about you the photographer, as Rod Witten remarked in discussion of the portrait of Hannah recently.

Thanks for bringing these pictures to us. You have to be pleased with yourself today!

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

Hi Doug,

This is I think a major highlight in your work. I really like the fact that you are working with what is there and the pictures are more about life of the family, than about you the photographer, as Rod Witten remarked in discussion of the portrait of Hannah recently.

Thanks for bringing these pictures to us. You have to be pleased with yourself today!

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug