Now I admit I'm a bit of a newbie when it come to processing images, but my first experience with the new firm ware has not been great and wondering whether my experience is unique. I downloaded and installed the new firmware with no issues. My first time out shooting with it was yesterday and noticed a significant increase in the graininess of the images - RAW and JPEG. I organize images with iPhoto (sorry! but still learning PS). My last images were crisp and good details, these are not. It is not that they are out of focus, but just grainy. I am shooting ASA 400 so that should not be the issue. As far as settings go, I used Art's settings from his blog - those don't appear to have re-set. I am trying to get two images and details to post that are small enough. Any thoughts?
Make sure you don't underexpose images, this leads to increased noise in general and with the 50D in particular. If you want to experiment, you could reinstall the previous version to see if that makes a difference.
Thanks, that may explain it. It has been overcast here is the Bay Area for the last few days and many of the shots were birds against soft gray sky's. I also realized I was using a general metering - not a spot metering. Several of the birds were dark. It is a new camera to me so I am learning how to do those +/-1 adjustments - now I just have to remember to set it up that way when I am shooting!
Yeah, it seems almost impossible that the new firmware would or could increase noise. Do check out "Exposure Simplified" in ABP II. I have been preaching "when the sun is not at full strenght, your meters are dumb" for Canon users for years.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Hi Cal, ABP II is the all-new continuation of the first book, everything that I learned about bird photography from 1996 till 2006, plus our digital workflow. Learn about both books and the sale here; https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/ca....aspx?catid=32
Thanks for asking!
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,