photoartflightGreat Blue Heron In The Grasses
As we were driving along the Brigantine Wildlife Drive looking for photo subjects we came upon this Great Blue Heron standing in the Grasses. It was quite far out so I put a 2X Teleconverter on my 150-600mm lens to get a closer image. It came out fairly well considering the Tamron 150-600mm lens @ 600mm with a 2X teleconverter (1200mm) is somewhat pushing the sharpness of the lens & image. Stopping down more to f/16 helped quite a bit plus using more Sharpening in Camera Raw when adjusting my images also helped. Usually when using a Teleconverter, I stop down more than I usually do when not using a Teleconverter. For example – when using a 1.4X teleconverter I stop down 1 more f/stop than usual. When using a 1.7X or 2X Teleconverter I stop down 2 stops more than usual. I flattened my layers & duplicated the final layer to have a duplicate layer above my final layer. Using Filter > Other>High Pass Sharpening I had a Grayscale duplicate image above my final color layer. The Grayscale layer was then changed from Normal to Overlay in the layers palette and I lowered the opacity of the High Pass layer to about 40 percent opacity. This just adds a little more Crispness or Sharpness (on the image edges) since I was using a 2X Teleconverter on the Tamron 150-600mm Lens. When using a Grayscale High Pass layer technique it is best to not go too “heavy” on the opacity of High Pass layer. Usually I only go to 20% or 30% opacity on the High Pass layer, but really depends on the image you are working on. This technique can also help sharpness when printing images on an Ink Jet Printer which is basically spraying the ink. But for Inkjet printing I would lower the High Pass layer even a little more. It takes some practice but helps. In my old commercial photo studio before I retired we also did a lot of Wide Format printing for our Corporate & Advertising Agency clients. I had 2- 60″ wide HP Printers for indoor display & fine art graphics & 44″ & 63″ Epson Printers for outdoor graphics or indoor specialty medias. Give this technique a try, but do not overdo the opacity of the High Pass layer. Again it takes some practice, but comes in handy.
photoartflight 
Beautiful results!
Thanks Belinda! The High Pass Sharpening comes in handy, but you have to not over do it!
Great shot but most of all, thanks for the tip about image sharpening 🙂
Thanks! The High Pass sharpening comes in handy when needed!
Interesting technique, Reed. There are so many different ways to do just about everything in Photoshop. Always something new. Thanks for sharing. Great heron image too.
Thanks Steve! I agree that there are many different ways to do things in Photoshop! This is actually an older way of increasing the look of sharpness. I was using this technique in the very early days of wide format inkjet printing to help give a “sharper or crisper” look to the outputs. Especially since the early digital cameras were more limited in resolution. So we made up techniques to enhance the “look of sharpness” in those large outputs. It helped with the sharpness when printing a 72” or 60” wide by 10, 20, 30 feet or longer output! Thanks again!