A few from the new rig

[Mark Itol]

Hi Ka Mastah. I recently built a new desktop (i5-2500K with initially 4GB memory). I went to every shop in Gilmore but had no luck on the AOC IF23 so I had to settle for a TN panel for now.

I processed last night a few images on the new rig. I'd like to hear what you think about the images. My main concerns are brightness, contrast, sharpening, noise, and color. All images are intended for web.

Thank you in advance.

Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), Candaba, Pampanga
40D, 400 5.6L, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, manual exposure, car window support, cropped



Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus), Candaba, Pampanga
40D, 400 5.6L, ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, manual exposure, handheld (braced on the Great Wall of Candaba)


Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), Valenzuela City, Metro Manila
40D, 400 5.6L, ISO 640, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec, manual exposure, handheld

[Romy Ocon]

Hi Mark,

Brightness and sharpening look fine on my LCD.

On 2 and 3, the shadows in the head and bill area have some crushed blacks.

Can't help much on the colors though.

A TN panel if calibrated with a colorimeter is also fine. Its only drawback is the color shift when viewed at an angle, and it should be ok as long as you carefully view the screen perpendicularly.

Try this online LCD test - www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ .

You can also view the photos of ace shooters at NSN - Allan Murphy, Mathew Studebaker, etc. - to check if their work appear ok on your screen.

[Mark Itol]

Thanks for the valuable feedback, Ka Mastah.

Yes I did "calibrate" my LCD using the lagom test prior to processing the images. Your photos and those of other ace shooters were also a great help. Without hardware calibration I resorted to a "histogram-based approach" to processing but I have to be more careful with the blacks as you pointed out. Hopefully next week I can calibrate using a colorimeter.

Will be posting more in the coming days.