Need to choose 3 from 6 for a competition

[molsen]

Thanks for your take on it, Skieur...

...just out of interest, would anyone venture an idea or two as to HOW to tone down the last one? I have had a go, but am never satisfied with the result. Ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers

I think you were right: it's over sharpened. Go back to the original image and sharpen it less. Or, use a mask and just paint on the sharpening effect on the bee's hairs (with a smaller radius) so you don't sharpen the noise in the background of the photo

Also, you should edit out the CA on its leg

Can you post the original? I'd like to have a go at it if I may.

I could send you the RAW, but not sure how to...can it be done in private messages?

I don't think so. You could just convert the RAW to JPEG with no processing and post it. But don't worry about it if it's too much trouble.

 

[Bend The Light]

I think you were right: it's over sharpened. Go back to the original image and sharpen it less. Or, use a mask and just paint on the sharpening effect on the bee's hairs (with a smaller radius) so you don't sharpen the noise in the background of the photo

Also, you should edit out the CA on its leg

Can you post the original? I'd like to have a go at it if I may.

I could send you the RAW, but not sure how to...can it be done in private messages?

I don't think so. You could just convert the RAW to JPEG with no processing and post it. But don't worry about it if it's too much trouble.

No problem...here it is... bee for molson to play by Bend The Light, on Flickr

 

[molsen]

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OK, here's a quick edit. It's a very noisy image (lots of noise in the shadows and details) nor is it very sharp in the details, so it's not the best to work with. I always say the best PP happens when you start with an image that doesn't need PP. But some improvement was made nonetheless. Some things I did:

- Black levels were brought up and contrast was increased.
- Rotated and cropped.
- Various levels of masked sharpening were applied. I used the mask tool in PS CS4 and applied varying radius, level and threshold values to the bee and flower. The key is to do a little at a time and make small adjustments. The idea is to sharpen the details without sharpening the grain/noise. By leaving the background alone, I didn't amplify the noise there.
- On that note, I did some noise reduction on the background and some other areas on the bee.
- Some more masked sharpening via the high pass filter at around a 50px radius. This creates a similar effect to the "clarity" slider in Lightroom.
- Some basic levels/curves adjustments to fine tune the contrast.

This took about 10 minutes, mayyyybe 15, so it's not hard to do.

I really don't know how this would look printed. It's not tack sharp and there is a lot of noise in the shadows and details. This quality issue is the only reason why I didn't vote for it. Otherwise, I think it's a good photo.

 

[Loscocco]

#and 4 have my vote for sure.. not sure about another one
Good luck!!