High ISO settings

Hi iceblinker

Seeing as most of my shots are of a portrait type with the SMC F100-300mm lens what metering method would you suggest, spot, centre weighted or multi-segment.

I have had a play with the setting in 'user' to get the ISO6400 option. If I select the spot metering option when checking the histogram have noticed that this tends to push it to the left, so I guess this is not a good option.

For more general shots of the stage with two or three actors present with a 35-70mm lens what would you suggest? Again in both applications should I turn the noise reduction right up or leave it on weakest and shoot RAW and deal with it at the processing stage (sorry I am an old darkroom man)

Thanks

Andrzej

To be honest...nope

There'll be a meeting the week before, so I'll ask then.

Our church doesn't do special 'first communions' - however when we have a baptism, and I am asked if its ok to take photos, I usually say to the family that it is, and just ask them to take pictures from where they are rather than wandering around, and trying to get centre stage and so obstruct everyone else's view! (I am a vicar BTW!).

I tend to discourage photos during weddings (apart from the official photographer, who I ask to take piccies without flash). One of the problems I have had was looking up from the 'book of words' at the moment a flash went off, and then struggling to read the next set of words

As usual its trying to get the balance between wanting to have a record of the occasion, and just being there for what the occasion is for.

Hope that helps, although obviously I don't know that particular priest will respond


Now of course, if I saw someone with a Pentax...

Andy

Hi Andrzej,

Spot or Centre Weighted for a single person; Centre Weighted or Mult-segment for multiple persons. Ultimately, the choice of metering mode doesn't matter because you can compensate for any errors, or push/pull the exposure, via EV Compensation.

If the data is all bunched up to the left on the histogram, try about +0.7 or 1.0 EV compensation, or whatever is required.

RAW will keep your options as open as possible. High-ISO Noise Reduction is not applied to RAW data, only Slow Shutter Speed Noise Reduction (dark frame extraction), which you should set to Auto.

But ISO 6400 is really noisy no matter what you do. Ideally you want a lens with a larger maximum aperture to enable lower ISO.

That's the main reason I want to stay unobtrusive and not use flash.

Hopefully the priest will allow one or two. I wouldn't dream of wandering around with the camera.

I think I'll get what I can on the day, then try again when the church is empty. The kids get to wear their Communion outfits for mass the following day. With my eldset I got to the church 1/2 hour before everyone else and took a couple of shots on the altar ( with the deacon's permission ).

I did a wedding a few years back where the photographer was wandering all over the place, and in the middle of doing the vows with the couple, I was suddenly aware that he was at ground level, near my feet, getting a vertical shot of the couple

Andy

NO!

Some people have no respect for where they are!

Hi

I did some work with the theatre group last night and shot on RAW and used the histogram as a guide and tweaking the EV Compensation as suggested to move it to the right.

I did leave the option to go up to ISO6400 and when I was pushing the shutter speed to try to remove camera shake, but when I lost the light I got some serious noise in the picture. That said I have got a few photos which I am pleased with and feel I am moving in the right direction, so thanks for all your guidance and help.

What is the best software for processing RAW photos? Dose everyone use the Pentax software that comes with the camera or should I go straight to something like Photoshop?

I used my trusty SMC 100-300 zoom but have to admit I was still struggling at times. I have an old Sigma 70-210 which is marginally faster than this lens so I might give this a go next time. Some of the stage shots with the standard 18-55 mm II that came with the Camera were quite pleasing as well. I was thinking of selling this but I might hang on to it now.

Thanks again for all the help

Andrzej

Photoshop Elements 7 will do the job for you at a modest price.

Silkypix Developer Studio is my favourite, but there are many others, including Raw Therapee - a free one that is more powerful than the software that comes with the camera.

RAW Therapee and UFRAW are both very powerful and free

I use RAW Therapee because it's a bit more polished and includes sharpening and suchlike. Unless there's serious photo editing to be done (like cloning something out for instance), the output from RT can be ready to print.

If you're going to buy something, get Silkypix, no question.

To be fair, that's all very well but Silkypix is a RAW converter. Although you can make adjustments, it is not a full image editing program.

So I think the question is what does the user require and this can be a different answer for different purposes.

Hi John

As you can guess I currently have RAW pictures which I need to convert to JPEGs. I need to try adjusting all the usual things such as exposure, contrast, saturation, etc to get the best out of the picture. Would there be anyway of filtering the noise out or has this got to be done by the Camera? Once this is all done, crop down and save as a JPEG.

All the best

Andrzej

Noise reduction can be done by whatever RAW or image editing program you prefer. Keep a couple things in mind:

1. Noise reduction generally reduces detail and sharpness.

2. Sharpening generally increases noise.

Therefore you need to find a compromise between noise reduction and detail preservation. How far you go in either direction depends on personal preference. Personally, so far, I often prefer to have no noise reduction at all (except for chroma NR), or only a small amount. Others prefer a smoother look.

Regarding Silkypix: It's true that it's not a full editing program, but it does provide lots of fine functions to do with tone, white balance, colour, highlights, sharpening, noise reduction, rotation & shifting, CA & distortion correction, cropping & resizing.

Silkypix does everything you need to do unless you are cloning things out or some other similar task.

In terms of the image quality attainable, Silkypix + GIMP beats Elements hands down.

As always the individual user pays his money and takes his choice, but my advice for whatever it's worth would always be RawTherapee + GIMP for free, Silkypix + GIMP for a little money and SilkyPix + PhotoshopCS money no object.