Could you please post the full size original image, along with the “.dop” file, and then post your edited image?
Since the forum is here for PhotoLab 5, it would be fascinating to see the image you started with, what you did to it, and the end result.
Hope you can do so!
…and if so, be ready for feedback on how you used PL5 from the experts here in this forum.
added later… when I save one of your images to my downloads folder, and right click on it to “get info” it says it’s a ‘jpg’ file, and all the EXIF information is missing. That would be helpful if you post the original raw file.
Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
244
OK!
Note that all my A7 IV RAW is seen as A7 III because I have edited the HEX-code in the RAW-files to convert them in order to fool Photolab 5 to let me open and edit them.
Hey, it’s not fair of me to get so much of the feedback and attention - why not upload one of your files, and your .dop file, so we can all look at it and comment? Everyone here is nice, and nobody will bite.
When fine tuning sharpness for Web and srgb display, I generally don’t use PL.
This is (among other stuffes) why I asked in an other thread to add something like layers and extended masking system. This could help adding and using future tools in sharpening domain too).
Here an image demosaiced with PL, but no dop because it wouldn’t tell how things are done when it comes to final sharpness.
D850 - 300mm-f/4 - prime lens - crop (prefer prime lens than zoom for sharpness, so often little cropping) - f/4 (full aperture) - 1/1600s - 320 iso. Manual exposure. Single point AF (more precise when possible).
And fine tuned autofocus (with lenscal) before shooting - + 3 for this lens.
But anyway, it’s when shooting that the biggest part of the job is done when it comes to sharpness.
Just talking about the way I do things, of course.
Parfois, malheureusement, je le suis. Mais la plupart du temps, c’est seulement quand ce n’est pas important.
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Stenis
(Sten-Åke Sändh (Sony, Win 11, PL 6, CO 16, PM Plus 6, XnView))
255
No the costs of mirrorless system cameras are not coming down at all my A7IV as one example is 500 dollars more expebsive than A7III was new. The number of sold system cameras has decreased substantially the last years despite the cameras has got a lot of new features. I don’t think it is because Nikon wants to save money that they don’t give the buyers of Z9 a mechanical shutter.
Focus by wire is not developed to save costs but to make new features possible like some electronic focusing aid.
I prefer a totally electronic camera to a electro mechanical one. My old Konica Minolta D7D had some peculuarities that might even be the casa of other systems with a lot of external “dedicated controls”. I once activated the Auto on that camera and it fucked up the whole camera since the external controls got completely out of synk with the electronics. That can never happen with my newer cameras since they are totally electronic whitout any dedicated external controls.
Nice shot from a spoonbill.
That panning technique i find very difficult with my g80 100-300mmii setup.
Tried backbutton lock, (no good due it never flies on same distance.
Trackingmode with lock. Does work but when you lose it on frame in viewer temporaly your off.
Just AFC in box mode centre.
Burst give some sharp images but often lots of mishits.
Same has minimum shutterspeed. (can’t set this in my G80 Which is a bummer)
1/250sec in the morning and evening means higher iso’s
Then initial settings are mandatory for a sharp image.
Then aiming technique and airpollution by dust, heatwaves and yes i dare to say clean frontlens!
I looked(seated next to him in the gras) at a user of dslr FF and a big tele shimney and he had much less trouble in getting a passing bird in frame and AF lock. Its v
Camera was mounted on a swing tripod. And i did eye handhold.
An other thing to be aware of for sharpness when shooting outside is heat distortion.
Sometime it is very subtil, but you can’t get a sharp shoot, nothing to do.
It is important to see difference of terrain between you and your target, and see if there is not a hot ground spot between you and it.
D850 300mm-f/4 - prime lens - heavy crop - f/8- 1/500s - 72 iso - Manual exposure - Hand helded (of course not the good choice for sharpness, but 1/500s was enough for this).
I must have been sleepy last night - now I see there is the original image, and the .dop file. I created a new folder on my computer, and copied both those files there, then opened in PhotoLab 5, which downloaded the camera/lens information to my computer.
Now I see the Master file, and three Virtual Copy files.
@Joanna can probably give you more useful information than I can, but since I always have my over/underexposue switches ON, on my computer the “dark” areas are too dark, and there are places where the bright areas are burnt out.
When I look at the Master file, and VC 2, I can’t find any differences between them.
Comparing VC1 to VC3, you seem to have corrected the exposure issue in VC3. I selected VC3, and used the crop tool to see how much of a crop this is. It’s so much that the sharpness seems to be lost.
Something for me to ask those who know better - when I look at the “Advanced History”, all I see is “Loaded sidecar”. Is there something I can click on to view all the history, including the crop?
If I’m using this correctly, and in the Compare tool I select VC2, I can’t find any differences.
So, I went back to the original, the Master, and viewed it at 100%. Nothing really seemed to be perfectly sharp. To my eyes, the sharpest part of the image is the bottom-right corner, the “strap”. If I had taken this image, I would be most suspicious of the focus, but I’m pretty rough at diagnosing image problems. At 1/2000th shutter, that seems pretty fast, but you used a 150-500mm zoom, so maybe the shutter should have been faster?
Don’t know how your camera works, but on nikon there is a setting (from 1 to 5) that makes AF more or less reactive vs predictive, and that helps when loosing subjects, or having things like trees that moves in front of subject.
I use BBAF too with continuous AF for bird in flight, and the tip is sometime to release BBAF button, retargeting and pressing it again as fast as possible when loosing target.
Talking about dslr, not mirrorless (I don’t know firts Z models) and not about Z9 that is a game changer for nikon AF (didn’t used it, but know how it works).
There’s a better way to do this - set up the Nikon Back Button as described in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmYJuCZiJWE
Any time the button is pressed in, the camera is in continuous focus mode, and to freeze the focus, just release the button.
