How to get picture sharp like this?

[scottyb70]

I have the same camera, Canon 20D and 10-22 but I am trying to figure out how to sharpen like this picture. The picture was done with the same camera. The picture I upped is a little less sharp than what it was on the website. I also use a tripod and remote cable when I take pictures, sometimes I use mirror lock up.

[gmitchel]

Digital camera photos are soft by nature. There is an IR-blocking filter in the camera to prevent moire effects. It softens the image slightly. Also, the picture is digitized, which breas it into tiny pixels. There's interpolation there and that softens the photo.

All digital photos need sharpening. Most cameras will do sharpening, if you allow it. It is better to turn that off and sharpen them yourself.

There are lots of resources on the Web. If you Google something like "sharpen photo," you will find lots of tutorials and articles.

There are tools you can buy. There are also free tools to download. My site has a number of free tools to help with sharpening. Again, if you Google something like "Photoshop actions sharpen" or "Photoshop scripts sharpen," you will find lots of free resources.

Bruce Fraser wrote a book on sharpening for CS3.I have both an eBook and a DVD that teaches sharpening. Lynda.com might have a video tutorial on sharpening, too.

Yuo are correct to use a tripod, cable release, and mirror lock with landscape photography. You'll get 20% more sharpness that way.

Eve with correct technique, a digital photo will still need sharpening.

Cheers,

Mitch

[mistermonday]

Scott, most of the effect you are seeing is most likely the result of a Polarizer Filter used on the camera. The give away is the contrast profile you are seeing and the fact there there are no reflections in the water fron the adjacent rocks and sky and you are able to see below the water surface instead of the normal glare on the surface that prevens it. If you do some research on Polarizer filters you will see many comparisons of scenes just like this one - with and without a polarizing filter.
Regards, Murray

[bdeephoto]

Hi Scott.. I would have to agree with Murray and add at the fact that this was shot with a nice wide angle lens which tends to make everything in the shot in focus and somewhat sharp. I also agree with Mitch in that all digital images look better with a little sharpening. I personally tend to suggest using the best lenses you can buy witch tends to give you crispness out of the raw file.. I hope this helped..

BTY I just put up a new fashion website and trying to get some input..

[scottyb70]

Thanks for the help. Brain website looks great. The only thing when I first went on the website was I started to click Fashion-Commercial, etc and nothing happened. Then I noticed the bottom navigation.

I know poeple like to use the flash and make the pictures roll. The problem I think may be difficult to someone that isn't familiar with flash is they might get lost in the scrolling and get confused. I also notice when I am looking at the pictures the next and previous are a little hard to see. These are only suggestions on what I see, maybe someone might see it different. What I am saying is make it flashy but not to complicated. I think if you get a potential client frustrated in your website they may tend to look elsewhere. I hope this helps.

[TommyO]

Another idea is to ask the photographer, if you know who it is. Just shoot them an email. Since there is no EXIF data in the image, there is not much we can tell about the way it was taken. In addition to the polar filter mentioned already, the contrast seems to be a bit too good for out of the camera. In my opinion there is a little HDR effect going on also. So basically, there were multiple images taken at differing exposures. This would also explain why the water closest to us is a bit blurry, as there was motion differences between exposures.

[igot2pman]

It may not be HDR, the watter looks like surface blur. As for the sharpening, try my action, I just made it.

It works well, and is adjustible to an extent. Feel free to use it, just please don't change it or the name. Don't sell it, and give credit.

The picture edit was only the sharpener and a slight exposure (offset)correction of the tree in the middle.

Sorry for the zip, you cant post .atn files, weird. Someone might want to make that an option.

[igot2pman]

This is the example picture with my sharpener applyed. Its over sharp, now, but it shows you that my sharpener can mimic what was already there.

[Ziaphra]

It could also be due to a technique called Hyperfocal focussing with a little hdr thrown in the mix.

[secretagents]

I am afraid I do not understand your initial post too well.

[scottyb70]

Hi Kevin, I tried your sharpener and noticed it darkened the image a little. Is is supposed to do that and am I supposed to work with the light and dark masks to modify the image?

[F64jms]

I may be a junior member but have been doing professional photography for over 25 years. My thoughts on this image... First this image has been reworked in PS already, the artifacts with edge banding along the edge of the rocks and sky are apparent from over sharpening. As you can see in the image certain areas within the image (i don't mean the water) are softer than other parts. What happens is that when a wide angle is used a tendency to stop down a lens for depth of field like in film days is used. The fact is unless your using a wide angle lens especially made for digital, stopping down more than f16 even f11 will cause this effect. Anyways the water blur is most likely from movement during the long exposure. The sky was most likely selected and adjusted. The image was dodge and burned or areas selected and adjusted. I found the best way to sharpen images is just to convert the image mode to lab, select the lightness layer in channels, click and turn on to see full color by checking the box in front of the lab channel in channels but not the channel (lab ) itself or the color channels. Adjust the lightness channel with unsharp masking. What this does is effect the grey scale sharpness without creating color noise or artifacts. If you dont have a true digital lens ( which are expensive 3 to 7 thousand dollars) don't shoot beyond f16.

[F64jms]

Hello Again sorry but I just realized I need to take in to consideration that images on this can only be displayed so big. The original file is what I should of been looking at. Anyways most of my comments are correct but my comments on the photo shown could be way off so take those lightly. But as for sharpening photos thats How I do it. I have seen samples of Nik tools sharpener that would make it worth purchasing the software.

www.niksoftware.com/sharpenerpro/

[igot2pman]

Yes, you’re supposed to adjust the Lighten and darken to taste. I tried to use the settings that would not darken the picture too much. But if you already have a picture will deep shadows or is not properly exposed, it will only enhance those shadows. Make sure your image is properly exposed.

1. You also can use the mask on the folder to mask out the dark and unwanted areas (global change).

2. lighten/darken can be also masked (mask the 'darken' layer black to lighten) or play with the opacity. Changing the Lighten opacity to 25% and it should balance out everything.

3. Adjust the folder opacity for a global effect.
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I created version 1.1 to correct the slight darkening (by adding a 10+ brighten, -5 contrast). Also added a second action that does the same thing without the folder (keeps everything in place). Personally I think the (folder) one has more control.

Posted an example picture, you can use the action on the original crop to make it look like the the full size. Its a bench, I don't know what the blue is.

enjoy

[scottyb70]

Here is a link to a cool website, I one day would like to do pictures like this. I know they are using 5d and markII & IIIs but if you look there are some done with the Canon 20D so I know I can still get good images with my 20D hopefully.

The picture that I have above is from this website.

http://www.timecatcher.com/main.cfm?...00&PhotoID=103

[TommyO]

In addition to HDR, many pro photog's have created their own workflows, then turned many steps into custom actions, etc. Many sell combinations of actions to achieve similar results as their "signature" look.

Here is another example similar to the one you posted for TimeCatcher:
FFDD Farar Focus