Sharpening Part II

Hi All

If anybody is interested I've posted the second section to my sharpening article. You can get there by hitting the link.I look at an advanced mask that allows for the sharpening of only areas that have detail while leaving the o-o-f portions unsharpened. as usual, please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions to improve it.

Cheers
E

Nick's HDR

Dear all,

Better late than never, my HDR entry. It is the first HDR I ever made, so there is lots to comment on. I see now I have a halo of light around the vegetation, so I think I should have made my selection slightly different. Please give me your comments and let me know where and how I can improve.

Cheers Nick

Bark Spider

Dear all

First of all an apology for not submitting an HDR image last month. I was so much looking forward to actually try and experiment with this theme, but it just didn't happen. Couldn't find the right time, moment etc. Perhaps we can extent this theme another month?

As I have been lecturing in a game reserve for a couple of weeks, I have had a chance to do a little bit of photography in between the lectures and field exercises. One night I found a bark spider, which is a really cool thing. It is a well camouflaged, beautiful looking, but yet freaky looking too, spider that in appearance mimics the bark of trees. Some even go as far as having thorn look-alike protuberances from their abdomen. As soon as it is dark, it descends from the branches where it has been hiding all day, and makes a classic orb web, where it sits throughout the night catching insects. As soon as the sun comes up, it eats its own web again, to recycle nutrients and energy, and sits on a branch for the rest of the day. When night falls, the cycle starts over again...

I took a few macro shots (Nikon D80, Nikkor Micro 55 prime lens set at F22, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, fill in pop-up flash and a sb800 flash with softbox from the side) at night, and the next morning I looked forever until I found the spider on a branch somewhere, and took another couple of shots during the day (same camera, same settings, softbox flash etc.)

Please let me know which image you would choose from these four, if you could only choose one to send in to a competition. Your feedback and C&C will be much appreciated. If you think none of these images should be submitted to a competition, let me know too, so I don't embarrass myself...

Kind Regards,

Nick