Going Nudi on the Thistlegorm

Hi all

Sorry for the title, but I thought that it might grab people's attention a little more than a mundane one!

I've been going through some recent footage from the Red Sea and I've got a few issues. I was almost exclusively using a WA lens on this trip as many of the dives were on large wrecks and with my set up it's not practical to take the WA lens off underwater. It was the first time that I've ever attempted macro with the WA lens on.

Everything 'appeared' ok in the viewfinder and on the LCD screen, but after capturing for editing I've found that there is a substantial amount of lens softening apparent, caused presumably from the zoom. I've put a link below to a good example of a Nudi shot on the Thistlegorm which was about the size of my little fingernail.

Nudi

Any of the clips zoomed in closer than that are unuseable, but I was wondering what peoples opinions were for the 'mid' range macro shots like the one above. Think that it's useable, or should I just send them to the trash cart?

Would appreciate your opinions

Cheers, Simon

It is soft around the edges but it's still a nice clip and useable. The viewer's attention is on the nudi, which is mostly sharp. Only us fussy buggers would be looking for the excess fuzziness around the perimeter.

If possible mix it with non-fuzzy shots so the viewer doesn't start to notice it like they would if you showed shot after shot like that. You could experiment with some sharpening filters too.

Some of the problem looks like simply shallow depth of field because you're zoomed in, you don't appear to be using lights and the iris is probably opened right up.

The 320x240 WMV instroduces some fuzziness itself and doesn't help us advise you if it's good enough for 720x576 distribution (DVD etc.). Can you post a full rez still?

If you're going for web distribution then you'll have enough pixels to be able to crop it down and still keep the nudi itself sharp. That's what I would do I think. Crop it down from 720 wide to 640, 480 or whatever and centre it nicely.

Hiya Nick

Here's a frame grab

I was using lights but it was a fairly bright day up top and lots of natural light was filtering down, so the lights more or less got drowned out.

I've got lots of footage from this trip that has similar problems, so your input was really welcome! I've got a fairly limited set up, so sometimes I just have to work withing its limitations. Hopefully I'll get some new kit one day with zoom through wide angle ooooohhhh ahhhhhhh!

Cheers, Simon

Yeah, I'd say it's a bit too fuzzy around the edges to use as it is for TV. But cropping it for a web movie should make it useable.

What camera and lens were you using exactly?

I was using my trusty old PC350 with a Epoque DCL20 WA Lens.

I've never had this happen without the WA lens on, so I'm assuming that's where the problem lies.

Thanks for the tips. The cropping will definately work for web use

Cheers, Simon