[audiobomber]

I haven't participated here for a while. I shouldn't be here now, because there was no need to use high ISO for this photo. The K-x was sitting on the chair beside me, but it was set for ISO 12800 from the night before. Two loons took off down the lake, and I grabbed the camera and fired. There was no time to play with settings. Nice high shutter speed though.

The first one is a straight monochrome conversion using my usual camera settings, NR Low.



The second version is in colour, standard filter in Noiseware.

[rawr]

Two loons took off down the lake,

These are usable. Better to have the shot than not

[audiobomber]

These are usable. Better to have the shot than not

Completely agree. I got the photo, and I like it. It's not pretty at pixel level, but that is irrelevant to me. I intend to print these at 5x7 to see how they look.

[Rondec]

Kimodo Dragon at Cincinnati Zoo. Iso 1600 pushed a stop in post processing on the K7.

[samtr87]

Took a walk in the park. All were corrected for noise to some degree.

ISO 1600. Used a K-x with a Super-Tak 55 mm at f2



ISO 1600. I like this one so I'll probably put it in another thread. The sunlight and water messed up auto-white balance or something because I had to correct it for the colors to turn out close to what I saw.


ISO 3200. The Super-Tak I used. Cropped from original


ISO 6400. Focus was supposed to be on the stick, but it was dark so I guess I got the rock and sand in the corner instead. Putting it here just to show ISO 6400 produces 'good enough' images.

[baro-nite]

Glancing out the window this evening and what do I see but a barred owl about 15 feet away. Often hear them at night, but almost never see one. 45 minutes to sunset and the owl is in the full shade of the house from what little light there is. In other words, extreme low light. Not to mention looking out a none-too-clean window with a screen. Well, what to do but grab the camera! Contrast pumped waaaaaay up; what looks like a bright background is actually full shade, just not as dark as the subject.

K10D, ISO 800. DA* 200mm wide open @ f/2.8. Shot from a tripod at 1/6 sec; amazing how still an owl can be. A little sharpening and noise reduction, but not much.





Heh, I guess you heard the shutter.

Here's #1 at full size:

[theunartist]

K20D + M 35/2.8

ISO 1600 - about the highest I can go without using any NR software. This image PP from out of camera JPEG...

[Designosophy]

ISO 5000, K-5. EXIF says 50mm, but it was actually the A135/2.8 at f/2.8. I had forgotten to change the focal length when I switched lenses.

[JohnBee]

I've been so busy this past year that I've hardly had any time time to pick-up a camera
Having said that, I was gathering some parts from storage and managed to take a few snaps with a K-5 and 35/2.

META: Pentax K-5, ISO6400, 1/125s, 35mm f/3.2

PP: Raw Therapee, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Denoise, iCorrect Portrait and Imagenomic portraiture(according to workflow).

FULL SIZE IMAGE: http://www.bertin.ca/tmp/IMGP6297_FS_PP.jpg


PS. I shoot multiple platforms, but the K-5 never ceases to impress(10/10).

[JohnBee]

So I've decided to take a little more time to check-out the K-5's higher ISO characteristics these past few days and one of the outstanding aspects that I've discovered(above ISO6400) is the rather rapid drop-off in the DR latitude. Which works out to metering and exposure challenges.

META: Pentax K-5, ISO12800, 1/6s, 50mm f/5.6

Fiona under the dresser

In closing, I'd like to add that I can't help but feel as though there is plenty of room for improvements at this particular sensitivity. And that the the limitations I faced with this particular image was likely due the result of my own lack of experience with the system. Having said that, I'm looking forward to working on getting better acquainted with the files and the characteristics of the sensor over the course of the next few weeks.

JohnB

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

You may have seen some of the photos from this set on the 1.2 thread, but they fit here too I think.

Here's another sample:

K-7, ISO 1600, f//1.2, 1/100
NR set to high in camera; processed with PDCU and camera settings; no specialized NR software
Click on images and view in lightbox for larger size



B&W version - a simple conversion from color shot:

[Designosophy]

I've been so busy this past year that I've hardly had any time time to pick-up a camera
Having said that, I was gathering some parts from storage and managed to take a few snaps with a K-5 and 35/2.

META: Pentax K-5, ISO6400, 1/125s, 35mm f/3.2

PP: Raw Therapee, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Denoise, iCorrect Portrait and Imagenomic portraiture(according to workflow).

FULL SIZE IMAGE: http://www.bertin.ca/tmp/IMGP6297_FS_PP.jpg


PS. I shoot multiple platforms, but the K-5 never ceases to impress(10/10).

The lack of noise is truly amazing, particularly when looking at the full-size image. I took some indoor, low-light photos earlier this week and they were plenty noisy, ranging from ISO 2500-10000. I only had the benefit of Photoshop, though. I tried Topaz Denoise a few months ago and wasn't impressed by it. It seemed like there was always a choice of weird artifacts or loss of detail, and I played with it a lot.

PS. We also have a cat named Fiona.

[JohnBee]

The lack of noise is truly amazing, particularly when looking at the full-size image. I took some indoor, low-light photos earlier this week and they were plenty noisy, ranging from ISO 2500-10000. I only had the benefit of Photoshop, though. I tried Topaz Denoise a few months ago and wasn't impressed by it. It seemed like there was always a choice of weird artifacts or loss of detail, and I played with it a lot.

PS. We also have a cat named Fiona.

Wow I think its so cool that you also have a cat called Fiona. My wife thought it was a weird name when I chose it for her(we rescued her) because it just wasn't a cat like name.

Anyways, I want to thank-you for your kind criticism. And as you may or may not know, I've become quite the fan of Topaz Denoise over the years which I also believe may very well be the best NR software ever made. However... I'd also add that it took quite a bit of time and effort to get familiar with the way the software worked and take advantage of the potential the technology has to offer.

I'd also add that I've discovered that Denoise has its own share of strengths and weaknesses also. And perhaps one of the most outstanding part of this this is where it works out to be a far better luma noise controller than a chroma one. Which in turn makes it a very good companion to the excellent chroma NR capabilities that come with RAW developers such as; ACR and RAW Therapee. And I think this is what really give TDN the edge over the traditional NR tools we've been using. Having said that... Denoise also has some very impressive capabilities such as; edge and detail recovery(recovering noise damages), which it does so very well but I'm not sure the interface and tutorials put enough emphasis on these types of things for people to really take advantage of such things. And so so again, I'd state that it can take some time to get used to the software.

Whatever the case, I'd me more than happy to share any information and techniques that I've gleaned from my own experiences with anyone who's interested. I don't know If I will ever have the means to publish an official tutorial or training video but I'd be more than happy to walk someone through the processes and answer any questions that would come out of it.

Hope this helps.
Thanks again for your kind comment.

JohnB

[wizofoz]

Don't think I have posted this before. Taken in the dark with my K-5. The d700's and 5DmkII's around me had reverted to flash. Pretty impressive max ISO.

[JohnBee]

Pretty impressive max ISO.

Indeed!
I think it's damned near miraculous, even as a smaller image. And the grain looks very filmlike too!
Great shot