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| The Lady Diana with some old wooden crab pots moored in Oyster, Virginia. (click to enlarge) Fujifilm X-T2; 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 31mm; 1/280th sec. @ f/16; ISO 400 |
However, a year ago this image was unusable. First, it was not sharp. The boat wasn't sharp and the foreground old, wooden crab pots were not sharp. I tried to stop down and shoot a quick handheld photo of this scene but when I returned home, I found I had failed. The image was close, and looked good when viewing it small, but when viewing it on a large monitor, it just wasn't sharp. I had just missed.
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| Here is the original. Pretty uninteresting you would have to agree. (click to enlarge) |
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| You can easily see how soft the image really is. The wooden crab pots are a bit better, but I clearly missed optimum focus point when trying to "stretch" the depth of field from near to far. Easy mistake to make. I now better check the image on the LCD at 100% before leaving. (click to enlarge) |
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| Same crop of the original image ass above but after the image was sent to Topaz Labs Sharpener AI. You can easily see how much better the image now is. It has to be magic! Lol (click to enlarge) |
Enter two programs that I now use on occasion. First, I employed Topaz Labs Sharpener AI (SAI). I sent this image from Lightroom Classic to SAI, set it on automatic and hit the refresh button. Wow! SAI nicely sharpened up the boat, the wooden crab pots and everything else! The wonders of technology.
Then, what to do about the plain blue sky. How about a quick trip to Luminar 4 for a sky replacement. Again, everything automatic. I just used one of the skies they include. I didn't even bother to use one of the ones I have collected over the years. Call me lazy. I admit it. The change in sky makes a huge difference for me.
Then back to Lightroom Classic to be cropped to a 5X4 ratio, a tweak or two here and there and you have the image at the top of the post.
As I've heard some say, "Easy Peasy." (Not sure exactly what that means....)
The technological tools we now have available to us in our tool boxes are amazing. Use them wisely, sparingly but use them to rescue your art.
DISCLAIMER: I have no relationship with Topaz Labs, Skylum (maker of Luminar) nor any other company. I buy all my gear, software and accessories using my own money at the same prices that are available to you. I don't have any affiliate links, no click-through advertisements nor do I receive any kickbacks, commissions nor any other monetary, real or implied compensation from anyone. Its just me passing on to you what I've learned so you can benefit from my experience.
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Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Pretty impressive results Dennis. If you didn't want the sharpening to extend beyond the boat, can you do that easily, or is it an all or nothing approach?
ReplyDeleteJim, the program has a masking feature and you can apply sharpening to the entire image or any part thereof by way of a brush tool. Sharpen AI allows you to “paint” in sharpening if you only want to sharpen a small portion of the image as well as “erase” sharpening if you want all of the image sharpened except for a small part of it.
DeleteHi Dennis. Enjoying your blog, found you through your write up on natural live view setting on the xt-30. I now always switch the picture preview off on my xt-20.
ReplyDeleteCould it be diffraction rather than missed focus? When I changed from my Sony a7ii to my xt-20, I was disappointed with some results. Looked like missed focus. I had started to use Capture One because much as I like Lightroom, the artifacts it produced were very noticeable on textured surfaces like stone. My point is, I was still using up to f16 on the Fuji as I had done on the Sony and the results were not great. Even thought of going back to the Sony. Capture One has a box that can be checked to correct diifraction and the change is noticeable. Not perfect, but better. Probably uses similar software to what you mentioned.
I did some research and discovered that on a cropped sensor camera, f11 is all you need and it'll be pin sharp. On a micro four thirds, f8 is the recommended highest setting.
I now never go higher than f11, use Capture One and occasionally export into Photoshop to finish. I'm amazed at how sharp the results are now. Another advantage is that due to the lower f stop, you can obtain a higher shutter speed and/or a lower ISO.
Be curious to hear your opinion on it.
John, thanks for your comment. Whenever I buy a new lens, I run a series of tests so I can find out several things about the lens, among them which aperture show diffraction softening that is beyond where I’m comfortable. As a general rule of thumb, I’ve found that f/11 is as stopped down as I would normally go for an APS-C sized sensor. For m4/3, I generally don’t stop down beyond f/8.
DeleteThat said, I’ve also found two things. On a very few lenses, I can stop down an additional stop and if I need the additional depth of field, I will stop down further. I’d rather have a slightly soft photo than one that has important elements out of focus. I’ve found that Topaz Sharpen AI can sharpen up most of my images that are a tiny bit soft due to diffraction.
One additional comment. I’ve found that f/4-5.6 is my sweet spot for m4/3 and f/5.6-8 the same for APS-C cameras.
Thank you, again, for your comment.
Thanks for the reply, Dennis. Found much the same myself. I use a Samyang(Rokon) 16mm f2 quite a bit for landscape and rarely move from f5.6.
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