Frogmouth on Branch

[cactus]

Wow, my first post and I'm already asking for advice.
Managed to get this shot last tuesday, only problem is is the focus! Any ideas, magic, as to how I can sharpen this image other than unsharp mask etc in photoshop or should I be grateful that I got this shot off at all? (bird flew away after this)
It was very dark, shot details are: Canon 350D, 5sec exp, F/4, ISO-400. Difficult to focus, any advice for the future in focussing when it's this dark?

Always take your camera with you! (I was at the neighbours)

Excellent site/forum

cheers

[Starcrazzy]

wow..what an interesting shot..very moody...Not sure about the focus problem..did ya try auto focus??not sure how good the 350 focusses in low light on auto....could try a sort of bracketing techniquue, where you take a shot and check the focus, then slightly change the focus and take another shot (time exp of course) untill you get it right..That would be one way i spose..or you could try shining alight on the object to focus and then turn it off for the shot...your shot looked like it had a light source hitting the tree anyway??Sorry im not a great help, but someone in this forum im sure will sort you out...cheers
again...well done...great shot

[TidaLpHasE]

hi Cactus, that's a great shot, it' a shame it's out of focus

What lens did you use, and what lenses have you got?, depending on the lens you can set focus to infinity in manual focus, this pretty much gives you good focus.

I am not sure your pic can be fixed you may be able to sharpen a little though.

Keep at it, practice will make perfect,

And welcome to the site

[iceman (Mike)]

Great shot! And welcome to the forum!

If using autofocus, the camera needs a high contrast point to focus on, so you need to position it over the middle focal point. Once it gets focus lock, switch to manual focus so it doesn't change, then compose your shot.

If auto-focus can't lock on, you'll have to judge it manually, which can be really hard if you're trying to look through the viewfinder at night. If you've got time, take some short exposures and look at focus, before taking the longer one. Might be a bit hard with a bird though

If you'd like, send me the fullsize shot via email, i'll see if I can make it sharper. mike at iceinspace.com.au

[Doug]

Sorry, can't add much to what has been said sofar. I've never played around with planetary image processing, but from what little I know, wavelet processing might help with the clarity, but then again it might not either.
There are some very accomplished planetary imagers here, maybe some of those might chime in with some advice,
luck,
Doug

[cactus]

Cheers,
thanks for everybody's help with this. Various reasons, such as the bird flew away and it was very dark, that I couldn't follow some of the advice given this time however i will be following it up next time.
I'm having some limited success with photoshop, if anyone's interested I'll repost the final result.
Once again, thanks everybody.
Cactus

[iceman (Mike)]

Repost!

[cactus]

Hi,
'scuse the delay, here's a repost of the original photo. I hate seeing any sign of noise so I haven't sharpened it too much. The sky in the original was in focus so I masked that out and used photoshop's new sharpening tool (in CS2) which is not bad, more flexible in the advanced section.

Michael

[Doug]

Wow!! You have done a fantastic job of recovery!

[iceman (Mike)]

Excellent! The sky looks really great. Thanks for sending it to me, i'll see what I can do, but you've done a great job already.