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Thread: Not Technically my pet, take two

  1. #1

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    Not Technically my pet, take two

    Same cat as last set and I think the noise is better. His chubby/grumpy friend was no where to be found. This was taken at dusk almost dark at ISO 1000 f/4 1/320sec. Ya'll (Texan for you all) be the judge.




    Not Technically my pet, take two

  2. #2

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    The use of the background to emphasize the color of the eyes reminds me of the famous photo by Steve McCurry of the Afghan girl.

    I'm usually the last person to notice or care about noise. However, the noise is so prevalent that it adds color to the cat even when viewing the photo at the smallest size displayed here. The noise color fundamentally changes the appearance of the cat in my mind.

  3. #3

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Thanks Mike, guess it's back to the drawing board trying to resolve the noise problem and obviously this didn't do it.

  4. #4

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Very nice image, except for the noise

  5. #5
    Shadowman's Avatar
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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Much better, a very difficult shooting situation.

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    I think the noise is as bad as the previous shot. See screen grab attached. You say it was nearly dark, but on f/4 ISO1000 and a dark subject (cat) you still managed to get 1/320s. Maybe that is the problem? You are using shutter priority set to 1/320s so the camera isn't get enough time to gather enough light at each pixel site. For a cat sitting still I would have thought 1/125s would be enough to freeze any slight movement - that will allow you to lower the ISO and keep f/4. Try it with those sort of settings?

    You could also go through the settings on the camera (with the manual) and just make sure you haven't set something in the area of noise control etc.
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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Is this with a long lens and hand held?

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Possibly just a fraction tight at the bottom but certainly an interesting 'pose'.

  9. #9

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Alan, it is a 300mm and yes hand held.

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Geoff, this patch sits right on the pavement of the parking lot. I tried to avoid it getting in the shot thus the tightness. I probably should have just let a little of it show.

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Rob am going to look at the manual tonight, thanks for the suggestion.

  12. #12
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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    I modified the image with NIK DFINE and it looks a bit better.

    Not Technically my pet, take two

    I once had a "black" cat who was really an extremely dark shade of brown. This was in the pre-digital era so I don't have any images of him but, he looked very much like this guy in photographs...

    Rob mentioned, "For a cat sitting still I would have thought 1/125s would be enough to freeze any slight movement - that will allow you to lower the ISO and keep f/4. Try it with those sort of settings?"

    Yep, 1/125 second would be fast enough to freeze a sitting cat but, even with the very decent IS of the 300mm f/4L IS, 1/125 would be at the borderline of hand-held shooting.

    BTW: Did you have the IS turned on to mode-1 when shooting?

    Black animals and white animals are difficult to shoot! I suggest getting a black stuffed animal and shooting with a range of exposures along with a range of ISO settings. Use a tripod or at least a monopod. The rationale behind using a black stuffed animal is the repeatability of the shots. I use a white stuffed animal to check the lighting for my white dogs...

    Not Technically my pet, take two
    Last edited by rpcrowe; 6th January 2015 at 12:29 AM.

  13. #13

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Richard, much better, thank you! I love black cats had 2 growing up. Now it's just dogs and white to boot, lol

  14. #14
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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    The green eyes and black slits are almost duplicated by the green background and black cat. This is one great shot worthy of trying again if the opportunity presents itself Barbara.

  15. #15
    rpcrowe's Avatar
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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    BTW: when shooting dogs or cats, I will use a hotshoe mounted flash pointed directly up with a Flash Diffuser Pro tilted at about a 45 degree angle towards the animal. This will give the coat a shine and will provide catchlights in the eyes. It will not cause the green or blue eye effect which results from the flash being too close to the lens and reflecting back from the cat or dog's retina.

    "I love black cats had 2 growing up. Now it's just dogs and white to boot, lol"

    Here are some of dog portraits, many of them are white dogs...

    http://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Pets/MALT...IA/i-x9HN2FMmy

  16. #16
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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    I like your advice on Message #12 Richard. I think I will try that too. I have quite a few coloured soft toys around here to try in my little studio...and I also like the edit you did on Barbara's cat shot. So Barbara all is not lost yet...your image is editable as
    Richard has shown here... I would have tried On One first now that I have a go around with the RAW files from my camera...

  17. #17
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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Hi Barbara!

    You have posted some really nice shots. And I see you are having consistent problems with excessive noise in almost all of them.

    Every image I have seen of yours seems excessively underexposed. And I think I may have seen where you even “brightened” a couple once you got them to your computer. There is every chance that underexposure is where your noise problems are coming from. Then if you “brighten” the shot on your computer you are making it worse. It is absolutely critical that you don’t underexpose your shot when using higher ISO values.

    While you are looking at your manual/settings check to see what metering mode you are using. And see if your color space is set to sRGB (this probably won’t make much difference for the noise). Is it possible you are reading your camera’s meter incorrectly?

    Then, after the shot are you looking at the histogram for the shot on the camera LCD screen to check your exposure? Do you have your “blinkies” (highlight alert) set on your camera to warn you of areas of overexposure? These (histogram and highlight alert) so you can push the exposure right up to the top without going over the top too much. If you don’t know what these are then a good start on getting a handle on the noise thing would be to read up on them a bit.

    If anything, try upping the exposure and “darkening” a bit when you get your shots into Aperture.

    You have posted some really good stuff Barbara. You are using top drawer equipment. All we need to do is get a lid on this noise nuisance thingie and you're off and running! Every one of us has had to deal with this problem, so you are not alone. There is no reason why you can't post the same shots you have been without so much noise after a couple of things are ironed out!

    I got Faith in you!

  18. #18

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    This would have been a nice shot except for the noise, which I don't understand. But you said that it was taken late when it was almost dark, in which case the numbers of f/4 and 1/320 don't seem right. This suggests to me that you have brightened the image in post processing, which would exaggerate noise. I think the only solution is a slower shutter speed. Were you using any exposure compensation?

  19. #19

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Terry, thank you for the kind words and encouragement. I am determined to get it right and will look into your suggestions. It has been wonderful to find such nice people who are willing to take the time to share their knowledge.

  20. #20

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    Re: Not Technically my pet, take two

    Barbara,

    I was wondering about the concern regarding underexposure mentioned by Terry and Tony but didn't mention it because I haven't seen many of your other photos. It would probably be helpful to you if you post the photo as it was captured with no post-processing except for output sharpening for display on the Internet purely for the purposes of evaluating your exposure. It's not even necessary to do any output sharpening because it's the exposure that is being evaluated. Once you've posted the image, people will be able to help you more, which will eliminate a lot of your future struggles in the process.
    Last edited by Mike Buckley; 6th January 2015 at 03:59 AM.

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