What have you seen

BM 

I had adjusted the exposure comp for a picture and when I came back to the camera I had a total memory blank and did not see what the camera was showing me.  Hence I adjusted it the wrong way and the pictures produced are what you see.  They are sharp and although I Can't do much with them, I do quite like them.  Wish I was clever enough to this sort of thing deliberately.

I never sharpen or adjust colour, the photo has to come out of the camera the way it does and has to be good enough, otherwise it's binned.  My wife has made some comments about the amount of time I stake out the garden birds.

I do appreciate your enhancement to the Fieldfare, what a cracking bird it is, some of the pics I have show what an attractive bird is in my garden.

We had this discussion before, but if you spend time to get a picture, a bit of post processing is very rewarding also to rescue a pic. Or enhance it.

I believe your adjustment was actually the correct way, but perhaps a little to far. I agree with not adjusting colour, but many cameras depend on post processing to some extent, to enable the speed of exposure to be so high, particularly the shapening, unless you have programmed for quality.

With your pic, the only change was to the highlight detail.

If it helps, I use a little phrase which reminds me which way to adjust exposure in the camera.

Light up.      meaning increase exposure for bright background

BM

I will try to remember that tip, thanks.

When I look at lots of my pics I am sometimes tempted to sharpen and perhaps enhance, but so far never given in.  To me personally, the challenge is to be there and get the best I can with patience and a bit of good fortune.  Luck always plays a part, if the subject turns the wrong way, there will always be another day.

Perhaps I could suggest putting some into a folder for a miserable day, so that you can have a practice.

I have an action/ shortcut set up in photoshop that applies a very small amount of unsharp mask to do what the camera does not do.

I use Canon at present which unless preset for a sharp image actually needs sharpening.

Not sure if I have asked what camera you use. I have a notion it is also Canon.

You are correct, Canon.

I meant to mention that the sharpen tool will just crispen the edges and therefore enhance fine detail unless it is overdone, which looks awful. It will not bring an out of focus pic back into focus.

I thought you had told me it was canon, which model?

70D.......The sharpen tool is not in the camera?...I think you mean the regular sharpen tool in the software.  You are correct in saying that over sharpening looks awful.  For the fun of it, I have just clicked the enhance button in the picture folder and it does indeed make a great difference, although I can't put the finished article down to waiting and watching.

About to go and get the van out of storage, if the exit is driveable, then try up the river, which has been neglected of late.

Yes I was referring to the unsharp mask in Photoshop or sharpening tool.

I looked back last night to our original discussion on this and found the model was a 70D. Looking at the user quick guide for that camera, it looks like using either Standard or Landscape in the Picture Style menu give sharp or very sharp images without the need for post processing for sharpness.

We tend to forget past images and looking through, I must say you have posted some excellent pictures. However I can't help but think how many you might have consigned to the bin without exploring the potential of all those hours behind the camera. After all you would never expect a concert pianist to drag their old parlour piano along to the Royal Albert Hall for a recital, or a carpenter not to use all the tools available to produce their best work.

Now these comments are in the hope that you continue to explore some of your other images. With that in mind, I have posted some taken this morning whilst hoping for another sighting of the Short Eared Owls of which 7 were spotted yesterday in my usual spot.

The pics show a less than accurate exposure from a little distant Kestrel, cropped and exposure corrected with a tiny hint of sharpening as my camera is not set up for optimum sharpening. 

Pics 1 to 3 are the same image pic 4 is a similarly adjusted one. Not really fit for the bin I hope you agree.

Bm

Wow...superb images,,,,,I might just try and replicate.

Before reading your latest post, I did a simple enhancement in Windows explorer.....just a one click job and was impressed with the improvement.  

I might well try what you have done with the Kestrel, not sure I understand it all, but will have another read after my evening meal.

Thanks for taking the time to enlighten me.

BM...should have said, I use Landscape in the user menu.