Editing help

Location : Prestwick Spotter Watch Member : No

undernoted taken with Sigma 55-200. Not best lense but was within budget to see if I
re-caught bug after years with 35mm and 15 year gap. Will need better lense I know but can anyone help with suggesting best software to try maximise what I am capturing until i see if Santa gets me a new lense.
This is untouched version of photo posted in recent photos but they seem to lose any quality I did have when posting. Looks good and sharp on screen but not when posted
Any help appreciated.....Thanks
Dave

Editing help Tiffyday009-1

Subject: Re: Editing help 2009-08-29, 03:12

Dave,

The image you uploaded to Photobucket is 1024 wide and when PB has re-sized it down to 800 wide, it tends to loose a bit of quality, hence explaining the jaggy tail fin. I would up-load to PB after re-sizing manually to 800 wide. Personally, I've stopped using PB and post all images direct from my own web-space for my website as it doesn't have these issues.

If you don't mind I had a quick play in GIMP (a free editing program) and this what I came up with -

Editing help Tiffyday009-1

(Uploaded to PB)

All I have done is crop a little tighter, sharpen, brighten up and increase the contrast slightly. I think the original may not be pin-sharp, and obviously it becomes harder to sharpen the image if they are not relativly sharp in the first instance.

As you say, you will probably need slightly longer than 200mm, I make do with a 70-300mm lens.

I'm far from the best at post-processing but I'm sure one of our regular genius' will be along shortly to add their advice.

If you need any further info, please feel free to PM me.

Steve

Location : Prestwick Spotter Watch Member : No

Thank you Steve.

I am grateful for all help. Had tried to re-size to 800 at PB and obviously not got hang of it.

Grateful for your attempt and as everything was a bit rushed to try get a pic yesterday I hope for better today. Did have a couple sharper but more foliage in way.

thanks and any other help appreciated.

Subject: Re: Editing help 2009-08-29, 03:46

The problem with re-sizing with PB is that is has some very nasty image compression habits which lower the quality. I always used to re-size to 800 wide first using another program and then upload to PB.

Steve

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

Try this resizer here - linky

Location : Prestwick Spotter Watch Member : No

Thanks guys.

Dave