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Probably wishful thinking but I took some photos this a.m. when it was very cloudy and foggy (I'm in So. California), and this is how they came out.  I am going to try and go back to same place when whether is better this week but this bird is a Pectoral Sandpiper, which isn't here very often (according to Sibley's, it only stops here in migration route south), so I may not get another chance.

 Anyone have any suggestions on how I might be able to make this type of picture look any better?  I have Paint Shop Pro but it's an older version so I don't think it has as many editing features as newer versions.

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Life List: 139
Latest: Cedar Waxwing!!!!!!!

There's no magic button on the newer software, either.  If PSP has any "noise reduction" or "despeckle" filters, you might try those.  There's an awful lot of noise there, though, so I doubt even the best software could deal with it all.  A really experienced digital artist might be able to clean it up well enough to be presentable, but I'd think the time would be better spent looking for a second photo opportunity.

Thanks, that's kinda what I figured.  I'm going over there today on my lunch hour so maybe I'll luck out.

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Life List: 139
Latest: Cedar Waxwing!!!!!!!

Curlybird:

Probably wishful thinking but I took some photos this a.m. when it was very cloudy and foggy (I'm in So. California), and this is how they came out.  I am going to try and go back to same place when whether is better this week but this bird is a Pectoral Sandpiper, which isn't here very often (according to Sibley's, it only stops here in migration route south), so I may not get another chance.

 Anyone have any suggestions on how I might be able to make this type of picture look any better?  I have Paint Shop Pro but it's an older version so I don't think it has as many editing features as newer versions.

Curlybird I have to Agree with Lyceel

there is alot of noise and the image you posted has a lot of pixel damage as well.

If you where to give all the details about the image then we would better to be able to suggest away for you to get better images in the same conditions.

If you could tell us what Camera you used, what lens (if it was a DSLR) what was the focal length if you used a P&S did you use optical zoom only or did you also use digital zoom as well (which is not a good idea to use). The shutter speed and the ISO settings. If you could supply these details it gives us a really good chance of helping.

Did you crop the image  that you posted ?

if you cropped the image to post it would be better if we had the original to work with we may be able to make some suggestions for you

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My New Avatar is in memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

Thanks, Kiwi - it was taken with a P&S camera, and I did play around with the editing quite a bit.  I also cropped it a lot too, as it wasn't a very close shot (I couldn't get any closer).

However, on the brighter side -- I went back to the same location on my lunch hour today, and this Pectoral Sandpiper was nice enough to still be there, plus the sun was shining, so I was able to get some better shots (still not great, as he wasn't close enough to get great shots with my camera, but much better than yesterday).

Here's one of my shots from today (with only some brief editing using photoshop here at my office) of the same bird - as I said, still not great but much better than yesterday.  I can do a little cleanup of this when I get home, which will improve focus, contrast, etc.

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Life List: 139
Latest: Cedar Waxwing!!!!!!!

Curlybird:

Thanks, Kiwi - it was taken with a P&S camera, and I did play around with the editing quite a bit.  I also cropped it a lot too, as it wasn't a very close shot (I couldn't get any closer).

However, on the brighter side -- I went back to the same location on my lunch hour today, and this Pectoral Sandpiper was nice enough to still be there, plus the sun was shining, so I was able to get some better shots (still not great, as he wasn't close enough to get great shots with my camera, but much better than yesterday).

Here's one of my shots from today (with only some brief editing using photoshop here at my office) of the same bird - as I said, still not great but much better than yesterday.  I can do a little cleanup of this when I get home, which will improve focus, contrast, etc.

Photoshop is good but it still can't improve the focus that is at the camera entry of the shot you can enhance the edges (Sharpening). Try not to do large cropping that will always distroy the pixels in an image. Unless you use specialized software such as Genuine Fractals.

There is a way you can crop your image but don't increase the size in the mornal or you will get pixel distortion there is a way that you can resize to a point I wrote a tutorial about before you can find it here http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/post/24425.aspx

And here is a tip that all P&S camera users should be aware of The digital Zoom is not an ideal zoom to use Use the optical zoom only

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My New Avatar is in memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

thekiwi:

Curlybird:

Thanks, Kiwi - it was taken with a P&S camera, and I did play around with the editing quite a bit.  I also cropped it a lot too, as it wasn't a very close shot (I couldn't get any closer).

However, on the brighter side -- I went back to the same location on my lunch hour today, and this Pectoral Sandpiper was nice enough to still be there, plus the sun was shining, so I was able to get some better shots (still not great, as he wasn't close enough to get great shots with my camera, but much better than yesterday).

Here's one of my shots from today (with only some brief editing using photoshop here at my office) of the same bird - as I said, still not great but much better than yesterday.  I can do a little cleanup of this when I get home, which will improve focus, contrast, etc.

Photoshop is good but it still can't improve the focus that is at the camera entry of the shot you can enhance the edges (Sharpening). Try not to do large cropping that will always distroy the pixels in an image. Unless you use specialized software such as Genuine Fractals.

There is a way you can crop your image but don't increase the size in the mornal or you will get pixel distortion there is a way that you can resize to a point I wrote a tutorial about before you can find it here http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/post/24425.aspx

And here is a tip that all P&S camera users should be aware of The digital Zoom is not an ideal zoom to use Use the optical zoom only

Thanks, Kiwi.  I'll try your cropping tip on this shot, as I still have an uncropped version of it.  Here's the same shot with my own editing features on my home computer.  Still not great but better than before.  (fyi-I NEVER use digital zoom, as I know about the distortion)

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Life List: 139
Latest: Cedar Waxwing!!!!!!!