Is that a three fly trunk??

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:41 am

There's a Lifestyle show on TV that talks about whether a particular vehicle is a two-cheese trunk (boot) or a three-cheese trunk depending on how many large cheeses it can fit in.

Soooo...I thought I'd try a three-fly post...

All three images taken with the new Sony DSC W70 (which is a 7.2Mp compact point'n'shoot) and are uncropped. The first two taken about 7:45pm and the third about a half hour later. Quite impressive for low-light shots with auto everything...

(...and that looks like another red spider mite top left of pic 1...)

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:56 am

Hi Steve,

The new camera is producing some impresive results. I would be quite interested to see pic1 at full size (or the fly cropped out at full size) to see how much detail is being lost by reducing down to the forum standard of 800X600.

Bruce

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:00 am

Nice tiny flies there.

Seems all three are of different kind. The first one looks like a Syrphid or hover fly. Handy camera that Sony DSC W70 though. What is the plant on pic #1, some sort of ficus?

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:46 am

Bruce Williams wrote:Hi Steve,

The new camera is producing some impresive results. I would be quite interested to see pic1 at full size (or the fly cropped out at full size) to see how much detail is being lost by reducing down to the forum standard of 800X600.

Bruce

I'll set something up Bruce...

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:49 am

MacroLuv wrote:Nice tiny flies there.
Seems all three are of different kind. The first one looks like a Syrphid or hover fly. Handy camera that Sony DSC W70 though. What is the plant on pic #1, some sort of ficus?

Hi Nikola. Its a Pittosporum bush (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittosporum) and is a very popular garden shrub in Australia. There are many varieties, some used as specimen trees, some for hedging, and one that was getting into our plumbing! (now a very short pittosporum).

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:56 am

crocoite wrote:
I'll set something up Bruce...

I've uploaded a cropped out fly to my website at http://www.crocoite.com/images/DSC00030-cropped.jpg (about 240kb)

It's a bit soft, but then it was quite low light conditions, and hand held.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 5:05 am

The new camera is working nicely Steve. All three photos appear to be very sharp and good DOF. The backgrounds are very interesting also, colors and patterns, but they don`t distract from the subjects.

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:51 pm

beetleman wrote:The new camera is working nicely Steve. All three photos appear to be very sharp and good DOF. The backgrounds are very interesting also, colors and patterns, but they don`t distract from the subjects.

Thanks Doug. I'm enjoying it immensely!

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:22 am

Quite impressive images from the new camera Steve. I have been wanting another point and shoot to carry into the field where carrying my 20D is not really practical. Lately I have been using a Sony DSC-W1, which so far has met my needs but it is only five megs. Been looking at the W100 which is 8.1 megs I believe. Anyway some really nice shots with the new camera.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:51 pm

Thanks for the full size crop Steve.

Yes I agree with you, considering the photo was hand held in low light, the results are quite excellent. There's a fair amount of detail to be seen on the flies body, legs, and head and the veination on the near edge of the leaf is very clear. I think it would come up quite well after processing with a filter like (for example) Focus Magic plus a final touch of USM.

Bruce

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:52 am

Thanks Ken. I have been intending to get a new one since the problems with the DSC P150 (if you remember a while back, I had dust getting in through the lens causing spots on the image when I was working at 40x mag). As I am within 30 days of coming over to the US, I thought it would be a good opportunity to pick up a replacement and get a bit of tax relief (better in my pocket that John Howard's!). This one is 7.2 Mp which is more than adequate for my needs. The only hiccup so far is the placement of the macro button. I'm right handed and I keep switching it off!

22 days from tomorrow I head to Tucson...

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:53 am

Bruce Williams wrote:Yes I agree with you, considering the photo was hand held in low light, the results are quite excellent. There's a fair amount of detail to be seen on the flies body, legs, and head and the veination on the near edge of the leaf is very clear. I think it would come up quite well after processing with a filter like (for example) Focus Magic plus a final touch of USM.

Bruce

These are not things that I've even heard of before Bruce. Might need to check them out. Thanks.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:18 am

Hi Steve,

First off USM is the UnSharp MasK sharpening filter within the Photoshop Filter Set (and other image processiong software). Generally it should be the last process applied to your image after cropping, white balance adjustment, levels adjustment, etc. There are plenty of How To use USM tutorials on the internet, here's one to get you started:

http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/shar ... arpen1.htm

Focus Magic is a commercial product ($45) that attempts to correct both motion blur and general out-of-focus blur. I am sure that there are other similar products out there that may well be as good or better. If used, it should be run before applying any USM. Again, if I use it then I apply it to the full size image, after levels adjustment. I prefer to use the plugin (not the stand-alone version) because I can apply it to masked-out areas within the image.

I would only go so far as to recommend you take a look at the demos on their website. The demos are quite interesting to watch if nothing else. Their website is here:

http://www.focusmagic.com/

I would be interested to know if anyone has experience of other similar (maybe better) image restoration products.

Bruce

crocoite · Post by **crocoite** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:25 am

Thanks for the info and links Bruce...

A while back, I took a single image, then sharpened it, then ran the two through CombineZ. The advice I got from a fellow mineral collector was that the result was similar to using the Unsharp Mask. I've not tried it myself, mainly because I found it difficult to reconcile in my simple mind (Unsharp=Shaper Image - Does Not Compute). I'll check out the tutorial and see if I can get my head around it.

jorgemotalmeida · Post by **jorgemotalmeida** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:18 pm

crocoite wrote:
crocoite wrote:
I'll set something up Bruce...
I've uploaded a cropped out fly to my website at http://www.crocoite.com/images/DSC00030-cropped.jpg (about 240kb)

It's a bit soft, but then it was quite low light conditions, and hand held.

this fly belongs to the Dolichopodidae family inside Diptera (order).