Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Back in 2009 I started a topic macro on a budget http://ddisoftware.com/tech/general-tech-discussion/macro-on-a-budget-123/msg910/#msg910.
Brian recommended the Canon EFS 60mm f2.8 macro lens and last year I bought one and have been very pleased with it  :)
With nothing better to do  :o  yesterday afternoon, I embarked on a garden safari with this lens and in particular was attracted by wasps drinking from our bird bath.
The light was good but using the camera hand-held, it was necessary, to keep the aperture small and the shutter speed up, to use either 400 or 800iso which can result in "grain" noise in the out-of-focus background of macro shots. I only have a modest 350D ;)
Now to the point, a  TTS technique enabled me to overcome this problem and help make the subject stand out from its background.
The particular settings involved using a negative percent value on a selected background tone so that was blurred and also using "sharpen NON targeted areas", the subject was sharpened.
See attachment below for typical settings. Note that I used RGB+ rather than Tone+; it is more selective and gave better results.
Some results from the garden safari are show below. The red/brown colour in the first image is staining in the bird bath which is distracting, I cleaned it up and the 3rd image was taken after that.
Tricky with 6 wasps buzzing around my head  ::)
Wasp drinking 1
(http://www.pbase.com/tjm04/image/136719273/original.jpg)
Bumble Bee
(http://www.pbase.com/tjm04/image/136719283/original.jpg)
Wasp Drinking 2
(http://www.pbase.com/tjm04/image/136719289/original.jpg)

Terry

After seeing the pictures, I am scratching! I wonder if I am getting "hives".

The second picture of the three is a "honey" of a shot.!

As you can tell from his approach, Terry was just "winging" it.

We also know that the British are sometimes called, Redcoats, because of their dress uniforms.
Are these wasps lost? They look like Yellow Jackets?

But I digress.

Beautiful job! , Terry!

Fred

As a further pursuit, I have no experience with macros hand held, and even on a tripod, it was tough to keep it sharp.
Also want to ask about the actual shutter speeds and apertures that you used.

Regarding the Tone Targeted Sharpening, Terry's selection of settings are image dependent. That is, you see what Terry did and what Terry set, and you know to try various numbers.
So many times, we read questions that start out asking, "What numbers should I use when using Unsharp Mask and especially Tone Targeted Sharpening (TTS) ?
As you can see, situations plus your objective call for the trying various settings.

Clarifying Terry's choices, he chose the selection of Sharpen RGB.  You can see from the screen snap that the EQ slider is all the way to the right.
That means that Terry found a shade or tone of color (oops! Colour) to select that he wanted softened.
As you check your work using the yellow button to see what was affected and what tones were not affected, you can move that slider to 95% and have another look, and 90%, and have another look.
What you are doing is telling Qimage Ultimate, look, I want to blur or soften that part of the birdbath, the part that contains *this* color. Now widen the shades of this color to include more.

In this case with Terry shooting Macro, the background will tend to go very soft anyway, so he didn't need to expand the color range of the RGB selection to blur more of the birdbath.
In most cases, you will usually need to select a 95% setting to achieve a noticeable blur.
But that's the beauty of the control you have with TTS. You can actually sharpen part of that wasp and blur another part.

Also you should note that minus settings in the strength box of TTS, should be not be too high. Inspect your work for a clean blur or softening.

Thanks for a great job Terry!!   8)

Here they are:
Wasp drinking 1: 1/200s f/16.0 at 60.0mm iso800
Bumble Bee: 1/200s f/11.0 at 60.0mm iso800
Wasp drinking 2: 1/100s f/16.0 at 60.0mm iso400

Terry

Great shots, Terry.  Fred, thanks for your informative analysis of this particular use of TTS.

Terry, I'm impressed with the performance of your lens at f/16.  My 55mm Micro-Nikkor is best at f/8 and f/11, but starts to exhibit diffraction beyond that.

Thanks for linking to the "macro on a budget" thread.  I don't remember reading it before.  Until recently, I did all of my close-up work with supplementary filters, specifically the Canon 500D and a set of Hoya filters, usually using the +4 diopter.  I tried cheaper glass, but the CA was terrible.

Owen, thank you.
It had very good reviews, is not too expensive and Brian commented on his in that other thread.
I recently  had an image (for projection) of a common blue butterfly accepted for a regional exhibition here in the UK. that was taken using a supplementary lens and TTS put the finishing touches to it  :)
Terry

I am going to try something here. I hope it's visible.
I have 3 screen snaps of a flying bird over water.
The first one should show the Tone Targeted sharpening set to very very narrow color tone spectrum by virtue of the EQ bar set to 100%.
The second should show the bar at 95% and the third at 90% and the 4th at 85%.

You should be able to see the increase in sharpening to *more shades* of the brownish bird.
The sharpening numbers are not being changed, only the selected RGB value and slow widening of the RGB value to include lighter and darker shades of brown.

I will have to follow up with another post containing the controls showing the brown selected RGB value and showing the selected RGB MODE, and a couple of the snaps! 3 & 4
Too many bytes for this post.
The point of the exercise is to show how tightly selective you can get. We certainly do not want to sharpen the water or a sky, just the bird.
These two show, 100%, and 95%

Fred

..and these will show the sharpening effect with an EQ slider to 90%, and 85%. and finally the color selected and RGB selected in the TTS tools

Look at the forward part of the left wing to see the differences.

Terry / Fred.

You are pushing my eyes to the limit, I can only just see the difference.
This topic has got me experimenting on some sea lavender images I recently shot and I did not get on too well.
Probably a trip to the optician is in order.

Damn good images from you both

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff
I knew it might be difficult to see on screen here, but you can easily see it on your own screen. Use the YELLOW button in the pop up preview screen in the Editor in Qimage Ultimate.
You will see a certain shade, like in the pelican sample, that shows no effect of the sharpening because the RGB values are a little to far away from what we clicked the dropper on for a sample.
As you move the EQ slider to the left in small amounts, the range widens on either side of the initially selected RGB value from the dropper.

So as the front edge of the wing was beyond the RGB selected value with the slider at 100%, as we widen the range, now the shade of the front of the wing is included in the range, and it gets sharpened too.

Think of it this way, You can use the target RGB for something like sharpening eyes or/and eyelashes, and not the face.

If I want to use Target the TONE instead of target this RGB, then it is most likely you get the whole bird with the slider all the way to the right.

Just trying to point out that you have tremendous control with the Tone Targeted Sharpening tools. Hoping this post thread will induce some to experiment and get the full feel of using it.


Play around with it.

Fred

Great example, Fred, thanks for posting.  The difference is also very apparent in the detail on the bird's back and on the leading edge of the right wing.

In keeping with this "bugs & birds" theme, I'll add a less complicated example.  Because of the brown-to-green color range in the subject, I selected the background and chose the "target all except" option.  Radius 2, strength 150, slider at 80%.

Good shot!!
Just for the purpose of showing others that you can use higher settings as long as the EQ slider is to the right, how about another post sample of the same image with Radius 3 and strength 250.?

Fred

Per your request.  Might be some jpeg artifacts in this one.  Replaced the photo.  Slider was indeed all the way to the right.

Looks a bit much.... Where is the slider? All to the right?

Good example though.
I have to leave for a few hours.
The 'boys" are picking me up for a day out for picture taking.

Fred

Replaced the image, as noted above.  The previous image had been reduced & saved twice.  Terry & Fred, thanks again for a very illuminating lesson.