PDA

View Full Version : King Fisher - Adayar Poonga



Rajan Kanagasabai
31-01-2009, 04:04 PM
I decided to experiment on the advices of Sabyasachi and Aditya (both pulled me up for using a very narrow Aperture in my earlier snaps). Hope i am getting better with the F 6 on this one.

Sabyasachi Patra
31-01-2009, 04:28 PM
Rajan,
I don't know why you got so much grains in this image even at ISO 200. The other image details are: EV-1/3, 500mm, f6.3, 1/30 sec.

I think your original image got underexposed as the meter was fooled by the bright highlights in the image (at the right and at the top, they are burnt and have lost details as well). Did you try to increase the exposure during post processing?

Is it a full frame or cropped image?

If you could have moved slightly to the right, you could have avoided the highlights. Many images are ruined due to bright highlights, as they distract attention.

In the previous image, I had said a lower aperture would have been better, as the situation demanded that. You can try to use the depth of field preview button to see if the subject is being covered adequately by the selected aperture.

Rajan Kanagasabai
31-01-2009, 10:31 PM
Hi Sabyasachi

Would compressing the original file (around 8 MB) to under 100 KB bring out the graining ? I do not see as much grains in the originals . . .

I did increase the exposure during PP but only by a marginal extent (at the best 5 to 8 points)

This is a full frame and i have not cropped this frame

I could not move any further to the right (or even left) for i was at the edge of the swamp at Adayar Poonga.

Sure, the depth of filed button did help, but i was consciously trying to keep the aperature down - more of experimenting.

regards
Rajan

Sabyasachi Patra
31-01-2009, 10:45 PM
Rajan,
I think you would be shooting in Raw. Converting to a smaller jpeg won't result in grains or noise. Since I don't use Picassa ( I guess that is the converter you use?) I am not sure what the 5 to 8 points mean. Just check you histogram. Is the histogram of the captured file (before corrections) more towards the left. That is a sign of under exposure. When the histogram is more at the centre then it is kind of balanced tones. May be Aditya or Rakesh can guide you more, as they might be using that software. Why don't you just convert the file into a smaller file and send it to me without any colour corrections. I can then tell you more.

I was thinking that it might not be possible for you to move further. It happens all the time with us. While commenting we say that it would have been better to move to the left or right or go down etc. However, it is not always possible practically, unless getting into the water etc.

I think you are using the Sigma 170-500 and its minimum aperture is f6.3 (ie. maximum lens opening). So you could not have gone below f6.3. In that lens, f8 gives proper results.

Aditya Panda
01-02-2009, 01:08 PM
Rajan, this one is much better than your earlier images. The bird is in sharper focus, thanks to higher shutter speed gained by wider aperture, and the dust spots from your sensor are absent. As Sabyasachi pointed out, f/8 would perhaps have been ideal for this particular situation. Lenses like yours typically produce their sharpest images between f/8 and f/11. Apertures narrower than this are not required under normal circumstances. You can use f/14, etc. in very good light, with flocks/herds that are not very active in order to get good depth of field while still managing decent shutter speed.

I think you should shoot and edit the image in RAW before converting to JPEG. Working on the JPEG can cause such grain, especially while correcting the exposure in underexposed images. I have attempted to remove the noise and have done some colour correction too, on Photoshop CS2.

This was my work flow: Corrected exposure on Levels > Adjusted Colour Balance > Reduced Noise > Re-adjusted Colour Balance > re-sized image to 600x400 pixels from original 800X533 pixels (to hide loss of detail caused by noise reduction and working on low resolution JPEG image) > Sharpened image > Saved image.

Picasa is a good basic software to view and work on images, but it limits you in certain ways which Photoshop doesn't. Another freeware I can recommend that is almost as versatile is Photoshop is Irfan View, try it. It demands very little RAM too. I use Irfan View to view my images and then edit them on Photoshop.

Cheers,
Aditya

Rajan Kanagasabai
01-02-2009, 05:50 PM
Thanks Aditya for all those tips and advices. Am planning Pulicat this week and shall experiment with them and post some.

On the dust spots, well this was a different camera (40D) but i have managed to shake those spots off my 400D with a blower this morning.

I am downloading Irfan as i pen this. By the way, if i click on the edited King Fisher image, i return a 404 Error from the server.

Rajan

Sabyasachi Patra
01-02-2009, 08:49 PM
Rajan,
You can check the image reposted by Aditya.