Sunflower and bee

[Ron Sprunger]

Taken in my backyard 7/29. I wish for a tad more DOF, but wanted to stop the bee and the light was failing. C&C welcome.

Nikon D7000, 200-400 f/4, tripod.
f/5.6, 1/160, ISO 2000, 400mm, distance 2.4m

101001

[Anita Bower]

I'm impressed with the high ISO you used--2,000--without noise. You did a good job of balancing shutter speed and aperture, as you described. Nice placement of the flower in the frame. I like the slight crop of the flower, though you could crop some off the left. There seems to be a blue cast making the leaf in LRC look unreal. You might correct it with Levels>Blue and/or color balance. Thanks for sharing.

[Arthur Morris]

I like the almost painterly look and the positioning of the flower. Wish that the bee had landed on the upper left thirds point :S3:

[Ron Sprunger]

Me too. I waited for him to move that way, but he seemed disinterested in the top half of the flower.

[Ron Sprunger]

Thanks for looking, Anita. I'm not really seeing a blue cast in the image, though I agree the lrc leaf is definitely bluish. I attribute it to the low angle on late light (coming from the left, in this case), and reflected from a fading sky. The urc leaves (undeside) look about right to me. I'll play with it a little this evening.

[Arthur Morris]

The birds and the bees act the same way!

[Mike Hannisian]

I'm impressed with the high ISO you used--2,000--without noise. You did a good job of balancing shutter speed and aperture, as you described. Nice placement of the flower in the frame. I like the slight crop of the flower, though you could crop some off the left. There seems to be a blue cast making the leaf in LRC look unreal. You might correct it with Levels>Blue and/or color balance. Thanks for sharing.

I do not use Nikon so I cannot speak to the noise level typical for those cameras. With the Canon cameras I currently use (7D and 1D Mk IV), I find that if I expose to the right the noise level can be reduced significantly.

[jack williamson]

I like this Ron, it has an unusual quality almost like it is slightly hdr. A pleasure to view.

Jack

[Ron Sprunger]

Thank you, Jack and Mike, for looking and commenting. I "discovered" ETTR a couple years ago, and it truly is the key to getting good high-ISO images. There's a great article available on the DPP (Digital PhotoPro) website here: http://www.digitalphotopro.com/technique/camera-technique/exposing-for-raw.html The danger is always going a little too far to the right, which I do frequently. Wish Nikon would provide an honest histogram for RAW images. Jack, I was trying to remember where I had last seen your name, and found it was on a couple posts in Avian (a Titmouse and competing Cardinal/Jay), both of which I liked a lot. Also checked out your great orb spider shot, which prods me to get back out to the garden.

[Arthur Morris]

Ron, Using the RGB histogram helps with both Canon and Nikon. Since the histograms on both are less than ideal it is best to always check for blinkies...

[Mike Hannisian]

The reason exposing to the right is important is because digital capture is not a linear function. Generally, modern digital cameras have about 6 stops of dynamic range. However, it is NOT the case that each stop contains 1/6 of the data the camera captures. Rather, the brightest stop contains 1/2 the data, the next stop 1/4, the 3rd 1/8, the 4th 1/16, the 5th 1/32, and the 6th 1/64. Also, noise tends to be most noticeable in the blue channel, which is usually the darkest and hence the farthest to the left. The result is that if you expose so that there is no data in your 2 brightest (farthest to the right) stops your noise level will be no better than if you had made the capture with a camera of 1/4 the capacity. For example, if I did that with a Canon 1D Mk IV, a 15 MP camera, it would be as if I had been using a 3.75 MP camera. (This is no better that some cell phones!) However, the camera will record 15 MP which it does by moving the data 2 stops to the right. As a result, the noisiest parts of your image will take up more of your image's total data which means that the noise will be all the more obvious.

[Arthur Morris]

Great stuff Mike. TFS!

[Ron Sprunger]

Agree that the RGB histograms help, as do the blinkies. But you're still faced with the fact that you can in fact expose as much as a stop beyond where the blinkies stop in many cases. You can minimize that gap by setting the camera to the most neutral picture control available, so that the histograms build on a less pumped jpeg, but I haven't found that any of the indicators on my D7000 or D700 truly represent the RAW data. It's great for shooting people, and for being safe about not blowing out the highlights, but the camera won't confirm that you're squeezing all the detail out that's available.

[Arthur Morris]

Just aim for a few blinkies and you will be fine.... Especially with images with BLACKs or dark shadows....