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Macro and Flora Moderator
Isaac the high ISO images will never produce the colours obtainable with lower ISO. Having said that it should be perfectly feasible to produce good quality images. I never hesitate to employ high ISO hence I use auto ISO extensively.
The first point I would suggest would be to ensure the image is optimally exposed, I am sure you will appreciate this will keep noise to a minimum.
Regarding colours and contrast you will probably have to do a little more. I just sort of sit back and ask myself does it look "right" does it need more colour or contrast etc. Often I find reducing the blues helps tremendously as the color temp can be low. Also when using the white dropper for checking colour balance try it in different locations if possible because some points sampled may be subject to a shadow containing green for example. Hope this helps. Have a look in the wildlife forum there are some very high ISO images there.... pretty darned good too!
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Thanks for the response Jonathan. Could you be more specific. Is there something specific you do to these images to adjust color and contrast or just add more or less using the sliders? Do you adjust the midtones? As for adjusting blues again who do this how? lowering the saturation of the blue channel in hue/saturation? I get the basics of it, just am never really happy with my results.
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Despite discussion about the meaning of DxO measurements, their measurements are useful to show how things like dynamic range and colour sensitivity drop with increasing ISO
https://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Comp...1Dx___1071_753
As Johnathan says the key is to ensure best exposure, maybe even pushing exposure over what is ideal in order to recover in post processing. Using high ISO and recovering shadows just multiplies problems.
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Macro and Flora Moderator
Isaac this is going to sound evasive but it is not intentional! I tend to verge ideally on slight overexposure then as far as possible I try to get what I want in the raw converter. In DPP I often find dropping contrast slightly helps especially if Standard camera setting was adopted. I am not worried about using shadows highlights up to + or- 3 and also consider using curves inDPP. I also occasionally remap an image by moving the sliders in the gamma panel especially if I have a bright subject on a dark background- it takes a little getting used to but practice helps. The blue slider yes I referred to the color panel and reduce blue sometimes this really helps in cool color temp conditions especially with black plumage. If you want to send a particular image I will be happy to process as best I can and tell you specifically what I did. Any questions please fire away.
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BPN Member
Hi Isaac, Is this more of the punch you are looking for. Your really not pushing the ISO at 2000 on a 1DX I think what you are running into is your pushing exposure in Raw but not compensating for the effect of brighting the deepest shadows which will lower contrast. All I did was used a simple level adjustment and moved the far left slider slightly to the right along with the middle slider which darken the deep blacks and mid tones . If you look at the histogram you have a straight line before it starts to rise indicating littler contrast in the darks so if you find yourself adding exposure in post make sure you slide the black slider to compensate or use a level or curve adjustment in PS.
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I do think that is better. Thanks for the input. I did already do exactly what you said on this shot but perhaps not as much as I should have. I lowered both the blacks and the mid tones already after having to bring the exposure up. But I like what you did and it does give it more contrast and a deeper color. Totally agree that ISO 2000 is not pushing things but this way my very first outing with the 1dx where i had to push the ISO and was only my second outing ever with the camera so I was just not sure as to how much I should push things. I do think that was a good learning experience for me as I now realize that I don't know anything really about processing these images well.
I do think that applying this to the whole bird is not necessarily ideal as now the facial disk looks too dark but I understand what you are saying.
Any other things that you recommend for these types of situations?
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Super Moderator
Hi Issac,
Hi ISO doesn't affect the colors unless you run too much NR which will reduce saturation. The lack of contrast in the original was fixed by Don. When you use very high ISO it is usually when there is no su in the sky and the lack of direct warm sunlight is what makes the images less appealing to those taken with a bright sun right behind your neck. I have many great grey owl frames and your images, especially the last one looks fine to me. It would have been nice with the sun but I would take this any day
best