Paving the way for winter

Your comments and suggestions are most welcomed.

nice autumn shot, simple image but well rendered... a bit more of sharpen would be advisable

I'm a sucker for shots like this. It's not something that we get a lot of in Australia. The slightly lighter grass at the end of the path is a real bonus.It draws the eye very well.

Giuseppe, Jeff, thank you, I am glad you like it. I was afraid that the rather central composition would not work, but had few other options. Sharpening is something I am not an expert in yet. I downsized the original image to 920 px wide (Bicubic) and for web I applied Smart sharpening, Amount 30, 1 px radius. I agree it may look a bit soft, but more sharpening seemed to create artifacts. Some parts may be soft due to branch movements in the wind, though. Do you sharpen the original image before downsizing or would you use different settings ?

Simply wonderful....7/7! Best regards

Buen punto de vista y perfectos tonos. Saludos

Nice fall colors, simple but effective composition.

Peter... Like Jeff, I just can't resist these fall shots, especially with the brilliant color and the excellent depth you've captured. As for the sharpening, there are lots of techniques, but I like to unsharp mask at about 80%, 1.0px, 0 Threshold on the original image, resize as desired and then run unsharp again at about 20-30%. Seems to work well, but sometimes after resizing the highlights get a tad muddy and have to be brightened slightly... Mike

 

 

Peter, I use the simplest of techniques for all images that I post on PN. I size the image to twice the display size and then use the sharpen filter twice. This will give you a very crunchy looking image but you then downsize it to the display size and it looks great. I use Photokit Sharpener for any printing. It does a great job and is a no-brainer for someone like me who hates all the black magic of PS.

Gallego, Claude, Michael, Jeff, thank you ! It is very good to have these valuable suggestions.

 

Here is the version after Jeff's suggestion treatment (2x smart sharpen 40 %, 1.0 px on double the display size, then downsized to display size).

And here is Michael's technique.

It is a very nicely done autumn shot! Great colours and fine details.

Great place, well composed shot. The central vanishing point is absolutely ok here for me. As Jeff said, the distal grass/ foliage line framed by the colored trees is great.

 

Interesting discussion about downsizing and resharpening techniques. Jeffs workflow was first described by a landscaper named Marc Adamus, I tried it sometimes but was never really satisfied with the result. Only recently I found my ultimative solution (a bit cumbersome, but gives the best results):

 

First, resize the original with Lanczos 64, an algorithm not in PS but available in SAR Image Processor. The downsized file is already very detailed, you need only a slight further sharpening: convert to LAB, load the L channel as selection (Ctrl-Alt-1), for better visual control make the selection invisible (Ctrl-Alt-~) then do the smart sharpen with PS on the -invisible- selection (only 0.5 to 1,0 points, about 60 to 150 percent should be enough). Dont forget to deactivate the selection, at last (Ctrl-D). Sounds complicated but can be done by an action. An alternative could be to work on the inverted LAB channel, simply by Ctrl-I after making the L channel selection (this is from Dan Margulis "PS LAB color")

Peter, I use 'Sharpen' not 'Smart Sharpen'. There are no variables, just select it and go twice. Thanks for putting up the different results.

Hmmm, old dogs can learn new tricks. I like Jeff's technique, at least in this application. I'll give it a try myself... Thanks.. Mike