I owe an apology to the four members who left comments on my picture "Museum of Islamic Art" in my gallery. I had a number of comments both there and in the forum about the image being too soft. I spent some time tweaking it, and then replaced it in the gallery. Of course, this then deleted the comments that had been made. In retrospect it was a rather stupid and churlish thing to do, and I feel that I owe those people who commented on the picture (which was also the first picture of mine in the gallery to receive any comments) an apology. You live and learn as they say, and if I have learnt the hard way (I would not expect those people to bother commenting on my pics again), then it's probably no more than I deserve. I can only assure everyone that I will not repeat this boorish behaviour again.

Great shots, I still haven't had a chance to use my macro lens, must get ot out, you've inspired me!

Here's how it was before for comparison:

Ok here it is, reworked. It's as sharp as I can get it after quite a bit of work. I'd be interested in any comments from the people who commented on its softness. I am also wonerding if anyone else using this lens finds it very soft wide open?




Just realised however that because the first pic was also from the gallery, and I uploaded it again, that has changed too!

Yes I have reworked the pic, couldn't do much with conventional sharpening so tried something I have not tried before, which involved using a lot of layers and took me quite a long time. I have reposted it in the gallery, not sure if we are supposed to do that or not. It's still a bit soft though. Not sure if it was the lens, the ISO I was using, or 1/30th a second on a boat, but all the shots I took on that lens at f1.4 seem quite soft.

Yes working for Qatar Airways. K10D, I like those pics, especially the one with the person in it. Thanks for all the comments!

Thanks for the comments! As I said, the lens seems a bit soft wide open, I sharpened it as much as possible. Also, it was taken from a boat, at 1/30 of a second hand-held, wide open at f1.4, so although the building doesn't "jig about", the boat did. I quite like the softness, but maybe that's just me. There was a lot of noise in the sky, which I reduced with Noise Ninja and then ran the blur tool over the sky.

I've been playing with one of my new (for me) lenses, a 50mm f1.4 smc Pentax A, which seems a bit soft wide open but I thought it suited this subject. The pic was taken the night before last on my first photographic excursion in Doha, from a boat. taken at ISO 800, f1.4





I would welcome any comments/criticism!

Jo,

Just tried cropping my pic as suggested and you are right, it does look better. Thanks for the suggestion,!

Congrats to i-berg, thanks for the comments (on all the pics) and the joint second place!