Tuesday, 24 August 2010

The Muffed Target

Alright, Thom, I'm in...
This is another definite delete:


It's hard to discern the subject of the photo as it blends too much with its surroundings. For that reason the autofocus didn't do its job particularly well. Besides, the lens in question is always soft at open appertures close to minimal focussing distance which, in this lens'case, is over a metre (actually, closer to 4 feet) at 300mm.

However, the photo can be improved (still not good enough to save for posterity but slightly better) which I have done solely in picasa: crop, contrasts, sharpening, a tiny bit of desaturation. These things could be done better in photoshop or some other picture editing programme but... well, picasa comes free...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a contrast these two photos are. In the first photo of course my eyes went right to the white rock but after you fixed it you can clearly see what the focus of the photo should be. Shoot I can learn about photography just by visiting here weekly :) Very well done and thanks for playing :) xoxoxox

Nessa said...

I'm with Thom. Such a difference in pictures. I need to learn to photograph marcos. Mine are always blurry like #1. I have no idea what i am doing.

quilly said...

You know, I learned a lot of what I know about photography from studying your pics, so I echo Thom's comment.

I have a LOT of pics like this one. Most of my muffed shots are because the camera can't discern what to focus on, and I can't react fast enough to manually focus the shot before the opportunity ends. In fact, I have one such shot up right now.

A Lady's Life said...

This is a moth???

RA said...

Stunning how sharp the muffed target can become. Thanks for sharing. Have a great week.

juliana said...

thom - indeed, almost everything was wrong in the original photo. cropping brought the subject into the point of interest although the focus is still faulty. but i wanted to show the possibilities...

nessa - i have found out it's best to select one focal point and aim it where the focus should be. with the shutter half pressed you can still reframe the picture without losing the focus

quilly - yep, the camera's electronic brain sometimes gets it all wrong. so i prefer one (central) focal point and shutter speed/apperture priority

lady - actually, it's a cricket :)

rosidah - sharper, yes. but other distortions start showing in the photo...
you are welcome, and enjoy your weekend :)