Author Topic: Topic 2: Focus and exposure  (Read 26793 times)

Offline davidships

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Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« on: September 05, 2015, 12:57:53 PM »
The site standard currently reads:
Quote
Photos must be sharp and correctly exposed.
No silhouettes will be accepted

Can an acceptable sharpness be described?

At what size should sharpness be considered - gallery image, full screen or full image size?
Can

Offline lappino

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2015, 02:15:22 PM »
Unsharp - meaning blurred ship's name from a distance when it should clearly be visible.

"Correctly exposed" - goes with the same category as "correct religion". Makes zero sense, remove it.

Offline Dеnis

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2015, 03:12:05 PM »
If a photo is within the acceptable resolution, in full size: if the ship occupies more than some 50% of the frame - name, railings, windows, masts, aerials should be clearly visible.
Regards,
Denis

Offline simonwp

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2015, 08:03:31 PM »
Current standard for focus seems to be OK, remove correct exposure, seems to be applied subjectively by administrators anyway.

Offline Captain Ted

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2015, 08:59:02 PM »
Photos should be sharp at any time and/or distance.
NOW!!!,,,if we could get rid of the sailors,,how safe shipping would be !!!!!!!!

Offline Patrick Hill

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2015, 10:08:29 PM »
What about scanned older photos? Not everyone has the ability to scan and produce a pin-sharp image - will there be some tolerance for scans?

Offline Robbie

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2015, 11:03:20 PM »
When it comes to sharpening I think there is too much sharpening. there are a few images that I feel are over sharpened. From trial and error I have found if someone uses the sharpening tool in say Picasa or iPhoto, etc anything over about 50% becomes pixelated. Every little detail is over sharp and unrealistic.
I think sharpening is a good thing but it should be the same quality as what you would see in real life not heavily happened and odd looking.

Regards Robbie

Offline csaba

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2015, 04:58:28 AM »
If I would put it as a wallpaper on my computer it is a go  :)

Offline Brent

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2015, 06:19:03 AM »
I would like to see some leniency for ships of yesteryear that have to be scanned off an average negative/slide, especially if it is the only image of the ship on site. Despite the standards it is still possible to post modern digital pretty ordinary shots, so we should be able to expand the library with views not of best quality.
...

Offline DEREK SANDS

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2015, 10:51:05 AM »
There is already some tolerance for older images that are scanned, this does not need to change in my opinion.

 We must be sensible, the advances of digital photography are impossible to reproduce except from transparencies of exceptional quality.

Older images are very much admired on the site by a lot of the members.

best regards

Derek

Offline Cornelia Klier

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #10 on: September 06, 2015, 03:29:15 PM »
The way it is now, it is o.k.

Sharp means, if I can read ships name and see ships window and it is just as sharp as it is in real, too. Especially on letters you can see this very good.

Keeping site standards like they are now, is o.k.

Offline Kyle Stubbs

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #11 on: September 06, 2015, 05:38:24 PM »
I think adding examples for sharpness, especially in distant photos, might be useful. Perhaps for larger vessels, examples showing where deck gear and railings are and are not clear, and for smaller vessels, showing clear detail of small features such as nameboards and windows.

Kind Regards,
Kyle
"Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often." -Mark Twain

Offline Phil English

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #12 on: September 07, 2015, 12:53:46 PM »
A lot of photos are removed under the sharpness rule because a full-size they are 'noisy'.  Basically, that means that the camera is struggling at low light and/or long distance and producing a poor image. At full screen, straight lines become distorted and smeary. Small-sensor pocket cameras/mobile phones and high-zoom bridge cameras are the main culprits. The larger sensor DSLRs do not struggle so much. I see a lot of people posting such images but if they were to reduce the pixel width to, say, 1600, the problem would be much reduced.

I think that the rule should be redefined to take this problem into account.

Brgds
Phil

Offline Tuomas Romu

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #13 on: September 08, 2015, 09:52:06 AM »
As for "correct exposure", the photographs should not be clearly over- or underexposed (large white or black areas), and none of the color channels should be clearly "clipped".

Regarding noise, I agree with Phil. If the camera cannot produce a noise-free image at 1:1, the resolution should be reduced before uploading the photograph.

Offline davidships

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Re: Topic 2: Focus and exposure
« Reply #14 on: September 08, 2015, 11:31:21 AM »
An observation: There are two full screen versions: "fit screen" (the opening default) and "original size".  In some cases the original is smaller than full screen, so it is the site software that can add apparent lack of focus. For those, perhaps it is the original size should be considered. In other cases, the full screen can look fine, but the original size might be considered "too large" for it's content (yet often invaluable for identitying mystery vessels, for example). 

 

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