Walter Naumann  


Mesquite Flat Sand Dune by Walter Naumann

May 2022 - Mesquite Flat Sand Dune

May 2022 - Walter Naumann

Original

About the Image(s)

Taken 2022 04/14 Early morning. Death Valley, CA. USA.

There are two types of shadows, dark and grey. The winds had moved the sand from the left and from the right at different times leaving a ridge atr the dark shadows and with the sun light almost parallel to the surface at the grey shadows.

The image is not very sharp. I am not able to walk very far so I had to take the photo from a distance and crop a lot. In tests after I returned home, I found that with the high resolution of my camera (51MP) I need a sturdy tripod and to lock up the mirror to get a sharp image even at the 1/1000 shutter speed. Maybe something is loose in my camera. Any advice?

Canon EOS 5DS R Camera with Canon EF100-400, 400mm, 1/1000 sec, f6.7, ISO 200. Hand held. Lightroom cropping and sliders and noise reduction, Photoshop, Topaz sharpener


This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted




Bud Ralston   Bud Ralston
(Group 67)
Walter - With that large a sensor and a 400mm lens, it does not take much to introduce blur into your photos. I'm pretty sure there is nothing loose in your camera. Almost certainly your problem here is camera shake. There are a number of physical ways to eliminate that: 1) as you said a solid tripod/ball head 2) a beanbag alone or with a panning plate 3) against your arm on your car's window sill or roof. Additionally, with your setup, I would definitely shoot in manual mode and raise your ISO/shutter speed, and if you need to, raise your EV by 1-2 stops. That should eliminate the camera-shake problem and result in much sharper images. In post-processing, the best software on the market right now is Topaz DeNoise/Topaz Sharpen.   Posted: 05/12/2022 12:18:58



Bogdan Bricelj   Bogdan Bricelj
Fine scene, good lightening, just sharpness is the problem.

How much have you cropped the image's long side pixels?

I don't know your lens but I beleive it has optical stabiliser.

I do not agree with Bud. My 18 years old Panasonic FZ-50 has quite sharp image on 420mm and 1/400. On my newer Nikon P950 at 1000 mm and 1/1000 I get 90% sharp images. Both hand held and without additional sharpening.

If your crop is not too tight, I think, you are true, that there's something wrong with your camera's or lens'es sharpening system. I advice you to give it to the service to test.   Posted: 05/15/2022 10:10:14



Walter Naumann   Walter Naumann
I used Topaz sharpener. The degree of crop is indicated by the "before" image. I used the stabilizer mode of the lens.

While I was able to achieve sharp shots using a heavy tripod and locking up the mirror before a timed shot delay, I have not had to do that in the past, taking many hand held birds in flight at 1/1000 hand held.

Something is wrong.

  Posted: 05/15/2022 11:47:54
Bogdan Bricelj   Bogdan Bricelj
Crop is far from being tight.   Posted: 05/17/2022 13:34:34



Dr V G Mohanan Nair   Dr V G Mohanan Nair
Beautiful landscape. I liked your composition. Lighting looks OK. More angled light would have given a dramatic effect. Yes, the image sharpness is not as expected. This is another image to play with B/W. I converted it to B/W, adjusted the levels, then inverted it. Resulting image is given below.   Posted: 05/25/2022 15:24:57
Comment Image



Joan Funk   Joan Funk
Wow, Walter, what a beautiful capture of the sand dunes! In my opinion, all it needs is Topaz Sharpen, and a little of the water cropped off the top.   Posted: 05/25/2022 15:57:58



Walter Naumann   Walter Naumann
As I said, It is not sharp enough, even after using Topaz sharpener. It is desert in the distance that does look like water and cropping it is a good idea. Making a negative is interesting.

Thanks for all the comments.   Posted: 05/25/2022 22:46:31