I'd have to say that I'm pretty much 100% JPEG at this time. I've got so much to learn about workflo, and digital tweaking, I can't even think about adding the Raw workflo into the process (I'd never finish anything!).
To date, it's been pretty rare for me to take shutter speeds > 1/10s with the digital camera. When I was shooting film, I played a whole lot more with night photography and longer shutter speeds, but I didn't have the computer work to go along with the camera work. So how significant is the loss of sharpness that some have seen with NR on? As I am not using the High-end lenses, (28-70/4, F70-210, Kiron 105mm/2.8Macro, DA 18-55), would any improvement in sharpness I would see by turning off NR, be swamped by the relative loss of sharpness due to lenses, or other issues? At the end of the day, I understand that there are a gazillion things that I can do to improve my images, and if I can see a 50% improvement by using a tripod (and I generally do see a huge improvement with tripod shots - just because it slows me down), over a 0.1% improvement by turning NR off, then I'm going to work on using my tripod more. OTOH, if I see a significant improvement by turning NR off for faster shutter speeds it'll be worth my while to remember to turn on NR when using slower shutter speeds. It's figuring out where all the technique/equipment/settings/workflow changes fit in the grand plan to improve my images is the hard part. dk On 7/14/05, Godfrey DiGiorgi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Jul 14, 2005, at 1:57 PM, Dave Kennedy wrote: > > > Godfrey, Thanks for the tip on the Lightning. > > > > Wow. I didn't know about that noise reduction technique in the camera. > > Your comparison images are quite enlightening. > > Glad to help. > > > So if you leave it off most of the time, do you turn it back on when > > your shutterspeeds are slower than 1/25s? > > Most of the time I leave it off. I turn it on when I'm specifically > going to be working at long exposure times for a particular effect. > > A longer answer: > > The test images were made at settings of ISO 200, f/22, 30 seconds in > Av mode, in other words the maximum timed exposure possible with the > camera, to exaggerate the DS' noise and show the maximum effect of > the DS' dark frame substraction. Most of the time, I'd open up the > lens and adjust the ISO to 800-1600 before I'd let the shutter time > run so long, with a consequent radical reduction in noise. > > My usual photo range has me between 1/10 and 1/2000 second, in other > words, hand-held shutter speeds. Also, I normally process with ACR, > which does hot pixel removal and smoothing as well. So ... while it > might pose some value at the bottom end of my usual range, the amount > of noise there doesn't usually warrant switching the option very > often. If, however, I'm looking at long time exposures in the > multisecond range for waterfalls, etc, yes: I'll switch it on. > > Another point: I generally save exposure in RAW format ... If I were > doing more of my shooting with the camera set to make JPEGs, I'd have > NR on more of the time. > > Godfrey > >
