| Photograph Information |
Photographer's Comments |
Camera: Sony DSLR-A100
Lens: Sony 75-300 mm f/4.5-5.6
Date: May 10, 2009
Aperture: 6.3
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/200
Galleries: Photojournalism, Street
Date Uploaded: Feb 9, 2011
Viewed: 274
Comments: 6
Favorites: 0
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An elderly man lights a bundle of joss sticks and offers prayers in a Budhist temple.
Thanks for the comments.
To answer Steve, 99% of the time they are the same in form and composition. the 1% variation is for the fact that incense is a more generic umbrella term, used for various purposes such as meditation, driving bad spirits, etc in various cultures. Joss is more specific in Chinese tradition, translated from latin Deus, which means God, so it is more about religion and prayer.
This image had soft focus to begin with. Shot at 300mm handheld, it wasn't very sharp. Shallow dof, but not that shallow. I got a suggestion that I should try Topaz InFocus. It worked great!
Experimenting with it, i found out that the best way to use it is to do a cleanup first of the image. Spot edit then Topaz Denoise. I lost a little more sharpness in the process but it was ok. I duplicated the cleaned up layer and put the new layer on top. I applied InFocus, moved the sliders until it was just a little overdone. The next step was to change the opacity of the InFocused layer so that it became less dominant and it blended perfectly well with the normal cleaned up layer. The result was a normal looking clean image with well-defined contours and edges.
The blurred bg was emphasized more with selective gaussian blur.
I then blended all layers and made a duplicate of the result. The dup was again on top, changed its blending mode to soft light. The result was a boosted contrast and vibrance. I changed its opacity to pull the boost down a bit to a more normal looking image with good contrast.
Hope you like the final result. |
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02/11/2011 01:56:14 AM |
| I just have the trial of topaz in focus right now. I have to say I am loving it. I may have to splurge for it. |
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 Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/11/2011 01:28:35 AM |
| Excellent--and great recovery of sharpness. I may have to reconsider Topaz Infocus (I have the suite but before they added infocus). |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/10/2011 08:48:58 AM |
Thanks for the explanation of both the religious aspects and the PP. I haven't been able to get much use out of infoucus yet. Maybe I am using the wrong adjustments, but all it seems to do for me is to create artifacts. I'll give your technique a try on some of my other shots in the side challenge. I should have plenty where the image was softer than I would like from when I had the older version kit lens.
Message edited by author 2011-02-10 08:50:15. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/10/2011 05:51:14 AM |
| I love what topaz can do! LOL! This looks fantastic! |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/09/2011 11:25:48 PM |
| Very nice. What is the significance of the joss sticks? They appear to be what I would call incense sticks. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/09/2011 09:20:09 AM |
| Very nice shallow depth of field to bring out the subject. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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