Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 8:38 pm Post subject: Yorkshire Day Festival - mountainbike display
Popped down to Harewood House on Sunday morning to take a look at Jez Avery who was doing a display as part of the Yorkshire Day Festival (aka 'how to spin a day into a weekend')
He was good fun to watch, here are a handful of pics:
"Keep 'em waiting" ISO 250 1/250 70-200+1.4x tc at 280mm @ f/5.6
Jez taking a spin around the arena ISO 250 1/500 70-200 at 200mm @ f/3.5
Kiddie Hop (probably ISO 250 1/500 70-200 at 200mm @ f/3.5)
duck! ISO 250 1/640 70-200 at 135mm f/3.5 & 1/1000 86mm f/3.5
Ended up prefocussing on the jump shots, as I couldn't get much to fall on an af sensor (11 af points seems so few these days!!) _________________ There is nothing in life that cannot be improved with either monkeys, pirates or ninjas NPU Member
Last edited by jonH on Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:51 pm; edited 3 times in total
Bravo Jon
Not just for the content (which is outstanding, BTW), but rather for your images' quality, which exhibit perhaps the finest example of a professional level of 'crispness' (sharpening) and lack of artifacts I've yet to see on this forum. These absoultely 'pop'. Although I can detect just a bit of a halo in a couple of shots, it's restrained and doesn't seem to detract much in images of this size. The first image is superior in this regard.
Really, really nice to see. Do you attribute this to superior lenses or post processing, or both? Some look almost as if selective sharpening was done.
Bravo Jon
Not just for the content (which is outstanding, BTW), but rather for your images' quality, which exhibit perhaps the finest example of a professional level of 'crispness' (sharpening) and lack of artifacts I've yet to see on this forum. These absoultely 'pop'. Although I can detect just a bit of a halo in a couple of shots, it's restrained and doesn't seem to detract much in images of this size. The first image is superior in this regard.
I don't think I even sharpened the first one and I had my 1.4x tc on so it should have even less reason to be sharp! tbh looking at them on my screen at work, I think the others are too sharp, and considering how much I've added (very little) i'll probably re-do them with no sharpening at all.
I use a 0.4px high pass filter (duplicate layer, filter>other>high pass) for sharpening as i find it gives much more natural results than usm, with typically much less noise too (usm sometimes gives me some wierd noise patterns) I tend to shoot action wide open, so add high pass as a matter of course, but these were shot 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop narrower than wide open, so the sharpening is too much
Evolution104 wrote:
Really, really nice to see. Do you attribute this to superior lenses or post processing, or both? Some look almost as if selective sharpening was done.
(encore, encore )
The fine & sharp detail in the originals has everything to do with the equipment used imo, especially as there is sod all processing in these pics (the bottom end of the levels curve as been brought in a gnat's wing, the middle moved left by a similar amount and anywhere between +5 and +8 saturation boost)
The Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 is great wide open at f/2.8 as long as you're not fully zoomed in, but knock it in by 2/3 of a stop and it's sharp enough to warrant a health warning
The pixel density on the D2Xs is nuts too - the sensor's detail is nothing short of astonishing, which does indeed scare me at the prospect of what the D3/D700 offers because pros are raving insanely about that. I'll add some shutter/aperture/iso details to the pics _________________ There is nothing in life that cannot be improved with either monkeys, pirates or ninjas NPU Member
Perhaps. The halo around the tire in the second image is noticable. I'm sure if this was printed it would become obvious. But the overall quality of the image as done for the web is such that the sharpening doesn't seem to be that bad. The overall effect is quite good, as it makes the subject really stand out.
jonH wrote:
The fine & sharp detail in the originals has everything to do with the equipment used imo
Which is what I suspected I sure can't capture images like that with the equipment I have now.
Thanks for the insight on your technique. I've been using usm almost exclusively, and although I'm usually satisfied with the result, there are times I wish for something else. I haven't tried the high pass filter yet (probably because I didn't notice it hidden under 'other' ) I'll give it a try.
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I sure can't capture images like that with the equipment I have now.
) I'll give it a try.