Possible to make it sharper?

[ypurcaro]

Do you think this photo has a little motion blur?

I think the bee is kind of blur, what do you think? Any ways I can make it better?

Camera Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/11.0
Focal Length 60 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV

Thank you all!

[WVCoalMiner]

In photoshop open as Camera RAW slide the Clarity slider all the way right then slide the Vibrance slider to the right and you'll get this result. Not too much difference but thats how I make things a little sharper.

[LeeR]

The first thing that jumps out at me about this image is that the flower is overexposed. The whites are blown out to the point where no detail is visible, so the first thing I did was adjust the exposure and black point. I agree with WVCoalminer that adjusting the Clarity and Vibrance sliders helps, though neither helps with sharpness. Clarity increases midtone contast and Vibrance is a saturation slider with built-in protection for skin tones. However, adjusting both of these does improve the image, so as soon as those are dealt with we need to move on to sharpening.
Sharpening essentailly increases the contrast between edges where there is a distinct value difference (light vs. dark) between two areas. Look at you image where white flower petals are against a very dark background or the dark parts of the bee. These are the areas that will show the most sharpening. It will not, however fix focus problems. Where the flower is slightly out of focus we are not going to be able to bring it into focus.
The quickest, easiest and most effective way to sharpen is with a High Pass Filter. Simply duplicate you image on a new layer, click filter/other/high pass, adjust your radius to 3.5 and press enter. You will see an ugly gray mess until you change the blending mode to "Overlay" but once you do that you will notice a significant improvement. High Pass works great because it tends to effect primarily the edges and leaves the middles alone. If you only know one sharpening method, this is the one to know. Here is what I got:

[edbayani]

duplicated the image and set the blending to multiply to add details in petals. used layermask to brush uot the bee and the pollen, and the background leaves. flattened and applied unsharp mask, amount set to 60 and radius at 1.5. applied this twice. saved.

[ypurcaro]

Originally Posted by WVCoalMiner

In photoshop open as Camera RAW slide the Clarity slider all the way right then slide the Vibrance slider to the right and you'll get this result. Not too much difference but thats how I make things a little sharper.

Thank you WVCoalMiner! I learn something from you today.

[ypurcaro]

Originally Posted by LeeR

The first thing that jumps out at me about this image is that the flower is overexposed. The whites are blown out to the point where no detail is visible, so the first thing I did was adjust the exposure and black point. I agree with WVCoalminer that adjusting the Clarity and Vibrance sliders helps, though neither helps with sharpness. Clarity increases midtone contast and Vibrance is a saturation slider with built-in protection for skin tones. However, adjusting both of these does improve the image, so as soon as those are dealt with we need to move on to sharpening.
Sharpening essentailly increases the contrast between edges where there is a distinct value difference (light vs. dark) between two areas. Look at you image where white flower petals are against a very dark background or the dark parts of the bee. These are the areas that will show the most sharpening. It will not, however fix focus problems. Where the flower is slightly out of focus we are not going to be able to bring it into focus.
The quickest, easiest and most effective way to sharpen is with a High Pass Filter. Simply duplicate you image on a new layer, click filter/other/high pass, adjust your radius to 3.5 and press enter. You will see an ugly gray mess until you change the blending mode to "Overlay" but once you do that you will notice a significant improvement. High Pass works great because it tends to effect primarily the edges and leaves the middles alone. If you only know one sharpening method, this is the one to know. Here is what I got:

Thank you LeeR, it seems like we can easily edit the photo with the software. Now, I don't understand why it was not in focus. After I took the shot, I viewed it in the camera and everything seemed fine to me.

[ypurcaro]

Originally Posted by edbayani

duplicated the image and set the blending to multiply to add details in petals. used layermask to brush uot the bee and the pollen, and the background leaves. flattened and applied unsharp mask, amount set to 60 and radius at 1.5. applied this twice. saved.

Thanks edbayani. So, if I don't have all these software to make this photo looks better, what should i do? Should I change the setting like the shutter speed to make the flower looks sharper?

[bbtom10]

Originally Posted by ypurcaro

Thank you LeeR, it seems like we can easily edit the photo with the software. Now, I don't understand why it was not in focus. After I took the shot, I viewed it in the camera and everything seemed fine to me.

The key here is to make sure you zoom in to the important area on your camera screen to check the focus - on those 2" - 3" screens it is easy to look like it's in focus when actually it's just off.

I believe this is what you see pro photogs do after they take a photo and are fiddling with the back (that and checking the histogram which would also have helped here with the exposure problems).

Tom