Socializing ducks...

Senor Hound

TPF Noob!
Joined
Apr 23, 2008
Messages
1,425
Reaction score
0
Location
La la land...
Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
So when two ducks get together, what do they talk about?

"Did you see Anaheim play Pittsburgh last night?"

Any friendly C&C is appreciated. This is one of the only photos where I'm happy with the colors I got. In most of my other shots they seem very washed out, but in this photo they are quite vivid!

2626757076_890fe98d3f_o.jpg
 
Cute cute cute , great shot
and i have no idea what they talk about lol somtimes i wish i knew what they where saying but on the other hand it makes life a mystery
 
Beautiful picture and detail. Those are some mighty ducks indeed!
 
great shot, but try not to center it in the frame...off to one side is best, but nice detail!

Is this better? I did a different crop, but I also did an unsharpen mask. I just learned about this the other day, and I did it at 100% at 1.0 pixels and 0 tolerance. I don't know what any of that means, but I liked it. It may be too much, though. I don't want to be one of those beginners that goes sharpness happy (it seems fine to me).

2628581301_9f06fe855c_o.jpg
 
Ducks make me smile. Dunno why. Silly critters.

as for c and c.

Its good. Looks like you were working with harsh light. which is limiting. Morning/afternoon these are the photographers hours. :) And as someone said remember your rule of thirds. ALso sunny16. :)

Good job.
 
Is this better? I did a different crop, but I also did an unsharpen mask. I just learned about this the other day, and I did it at 100% at 1.0 pixels and 0 tolerance. I don't know what any of that means, but I liked it. It may be too much, though. I don't want to be one of those beginners that goes sharpness happy (it seems fine to me).

This second crop is better much, although I'd like to see more green to the left and on top of the ducks (personal preference, though). And yes, it seems a tad oversharpened –look at the top right section of the image, where the out-of-focus green appears weird.

Very nice shot, with the added bonus of a funny title and accompanying hilarious dialogue.
 
Wish I had I my camera coming home from work the other day. I seen 6 of these in a pond.
 
Is this better? I did a different crop, but I also did an unsharpen mask. I just learned about this the other day, and I did it at 100% at 1.0 pixels and 0 tolerance. I don't know what any of that means, but I liked it. It may be too much, though. I don't want to be one of those beginners that goes sharpness happy (it seems fine to me).

2628581301_9f06fe855c_o.jpg

Yes that's better. But you can eliminate that harsh red outlining and related halo glows by roughly selecting the duck bodies before you do the edits. Select a few pixels inward from the duck to grass borders.


Definitions:
  1. The "Radius" is the value used to determine the number of pixels surrounding the edge pixels that affect the sharpening. The greater the radius value, the wider the edge effects. And the wider the edge effects, the more obvious the sharpening. The Radius value varies according to the subject matter, the size of the final reproduction, and the output method. For high-resolution images, a Radius value between 1 and 2 is fairly common. A lower value sharpens only the edge pixels, whereas a higher value sharpens a wider band of pixels. This effect is much less noticeable in print than on‑screen, because a 2‑pixel (for example) radius represents a smaller area in a high-resolution printed image.

  2. The "Amount" is a percentage value used to determine how much to increase the contrast of pixels. For high-resolution printed images, an amount between 100% and 200% is fairly common.

  3. The "Threshold" is the value used to determine how different the sharpened pixels must be from the surrounding area before they are considered "edge pixels" and sharpened by the filter. For instance, a threshold of 4 affects all pixels that have tonal values that differ by a value or 4 or more, on a scale of 0 to 255. So, if adjacent pixels have tonal values of 128 and 129, they are not affected. To avoid introducing noise or posterization (in images with flesh tones, for example), use an edge mask or try experimenting with Threshold values between 2 and 20. The default Threshold value (0) sharpens all pixels in the image.

USM actually comes from a darkroom technique for sharpening an image during printing. It’s alike to the contrast mask technique except the mask created is a very low-contrast and thin inverted image. The two layers are sandwiched together and printed, but since the mask is so thin it doesn’t affect the exposure of the overall image very much. However in small contrasting areas the inverted image increases edge contrast slightly, thereby making the final print appear slightly sharper. USM is the software analogue of that technique.
 
Last edited:
Wow, Bifurcator. THANK YOU! I got tons of great advice in this thread!

Now I know some tricks, too, to help increase the sharpness in desired spots without doing so in other spots. Maybe (?) the grass wouldn't have been oversharpened if I had set the tolerance up a little more than 0 :) I just thought the settings I had really made the feathers pop (for example the purple part on the duck's side).

I told you this before, but I've seen your posts, Bifurcator, and you have the best comprehension of Photoshop I've seen yet on here. You always know exactly what tool would create the desired effect other photographers are looking for. Thanks again!
 
"other photographers are looking for" being the key part of that phrase of course. ;) I often am either too lazy or too forgetful to do it in my own images. :D
 

Most reactions

Back
Top