Pushing the Limits: Palm Tanager at ISO 6400 (Now With Tutorial)

[Doug Brown]

As I alluded to in an earlier image post, I really pushed my Mark IV to the proverbial limits during my Costa Rica workshop. This is a Palm Tanager shot at ISO 6400. Although I'm not going to set it and forget it at ISO 6400, it's nice to know that I can safely go there if I need to.

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Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm + 1.4x, f/8, 1/2000, ISO 6400, manual exposure, fill flash, tripod

[Stu Bowie]

Doug, if you hadnt mentioned it, there is no way one can pick up you used such a high ISO - no hint of noise from my side. Good attentive pose, and I like the varied colours of the plumage.

[Joe Brown]

Very nice Doug. During my trip to Ecuador I've also found that if you have a little light you can get very nice shots with these high ISOs. What, if any, processing have you done to remove the noise you get at 6500?

Joe

[Bill Holsten]

Nice pose and image Doug. I have a few Palm Tanager images I really like, but you beat me to it. FYI, I have ordered a 1D Mark IV. They are out of stock, but I should
have it in a couple of weeks.

Bill

[John Guastella]

Really nice for ISO 6400! Also curious about what NR you used to get such a clean BG at this ISO.

John

[Todd Frost]

Very nice image let alone the high iso. Amazing what the new technology is capable of , especially in skilled hands :bg3:. Nice pose and sharpness looks good. Love the bg. Well done.
TFS
Todd

[Robert Amoruso]

Good example of working critically and making high ISO work for you.

[Sid Garige]

one good looking image for ISO 6400 Doug. Great post processing .

[Arsdel Fluesmeier]

Very good wshotof the Tanager. Amazing what you can get with an ISo of 6400.

[Doug Brown]

Here's a 100% crop of the RAW file with no NR applied. To shoot successfully at very high ISOs, the subject must be large in the frame, your exposure has to be spot on, and your sharpness has to be excellent. I'll take you through the processing steps tomorrow.

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[Ken Watkins]

I'll take you through the processing steps tomorrow.




Doug
I for one cannot wait to find out:bg3::bg3:

[Greg Basco]

Hi, Doug. Thanks very much for posting this and for trying out the high ISOs during the workshop. Like Bill, I have one of these babies on order too -- I got tired of waiting for a Canon new body announcement.

The image here looks quite nice, and I'm sure the post-processing techniques for noise will make a great tutorial for everyone.

I had one question -- when you say the subject must be large in the frame, are you saying this in reference to not cropping? I'm not sure I understand why the subject would need to be large in the frame for high ISOs any more than it would be for lower ISOs, unless of course you do mean that you wouldn't want to do a big crop at high ISOs because the detail starts to break down.

Cheers,
Greg

[Doug Brown]

I had one question -- when you say the subject must be large in the frame, are you saying this in reference to not cropping? I'm not sure I understand why the subject would need to be large in the frame for high ISOs any more than it would be for lower ISOs, unless of course you do mean that you wouldn't want to do a big crop at high ISOs because the detail starts to break down.

Cheers,
Greg

That's precisely the reason Greg.

[Greg Basco]

Thanks, Doug. Looking forward to the PP notes on noise reduction. It would be interesting to print a 13x19 or so to see how it looks with ISO 6400.

Cheers,
Greg

[Doug Brown]

Here's how I post process:
Step 1: Use your normal Lightroom workflow (no noise reduction) and then open the image in Photoshop.

Step 2: Duplicate the background layer in PS.

Step 3: Make a careful selection of the bird and copy it to its own layer (on top of the other two layers).

Step 4: Do a single round of noise reduction on the copy of the background layer.

Step 5: Activate your bird selection (marching ants around the bird) and highlight the noise reduced layer you just worked on in Step 4.

Step 6: Copy the noise-reduced version of the bird to its own layer just beneath the non-noise reduced bird you created in Step 3.

Step 7: Run additional noise reduction (to taste) on the copy of the background layer created in Step 2.

Step 8: Sharpen the non-noise reduced bird you created in Step 3, and then add a white layer mask to it.

Step 9: Use a black brush with 20%-30% opacity on the layer mask you just created to partially reveal the noise-reduced bird in areas where noise is especially prominent.

Step 10: Duplicate the bird layer you worked on in Step 8 and delete the layer mask. This should now be the top layer.

Step 11: Sharpen the newly created layer from Step 10 (use about 50% of the amount of sharpening you used in Step 8), and then add a black layer mask to it.

Step 12: Use a white brush with 80%-100% opacity on the black layer mask you just created in Step 11 to selectively reveal the extra sharpening, but do so sparingly (I usually reveal the area around the eye, and maybe the feet).

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Here's a legend to the layers in the screenshot:
Background: the original unaltered image
Heavy NR: the Background copy created in Step 2 and then worked on in Steps 4 and 7
Light NR: the bird layer created in Steps 5 and 6
No NR: the bird layer created in Step 3 and then worked on in Steps 8 and 9
No NR + Extra: the bird layer created in Step 10 and then worked on in Steps 11 and 12
Watermark: my watermark

It sounds complicated but it's not that hard. The results can be pretty impressive!

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent Doug, very nice details for ISO 6400

[Stuart Dennis]

Excellent picture and tutorial. I hope I can use your technique as well as you do:bg3:
TFS

[James Salywoda]

Fantastic work on this Doug as presented I wouldn't of known it was that high ISO looks sweet my friend.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for taking the time to comment everyone. I hope this workflow lesson helps you when you find yourself at uncomfortably high ISOs!

[Ben_Sadd]

Doug,

Thank you very much for putting your time into this nice little tutorial.

What values do you use for your noise reduction?

I assume as you are sharpening that you are running the whole procedure on an image that has been resized for use?

[Doug Brown]

Doug,

Thank you very much for putting your time into this nice little tutorial.

What values do you use for your noise reduction?

I assume as you are sharpening that you are running the whole procedure on an image that has been resized for use?

Hi Ben. I normally do my NR prior to resizing, although in this case it looked better after resizing. Sharpening takes place after I resize for use. I should have made that clear.

[Harshad Barve]

Doug, you nailed that one nicely
TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

excellent results here Doug and thanks for sharing your workflow!

[Jim Ducey]

Thank you for the post processing information, I will try using it this week, your results look great
Jim :S3:

[Gerald W. Tobias]

What was your approx. distance-to-subjest, when you shot the Palm Tanager at ISO 6400?



As I alluded to in an earlier image post, I really pushed my Mark IV to the proverbial limits during my Costa Rica workshop. This is a Palm Tanager shot at ISO 6400. Although I'm not going to set it and forget it at ISO 6400, it's nice to know that I can safely go there if I need to.

88890

Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm + 1.4x, f/8, 1/2000, ISO 6400, manual exposure, fill flash, tripod