Hey guys, this is Janine from Pangolin,
and today I would like to talk to you about how to utilize the dynamic
range of your camera, best...to avoid noisy images. Grain and noise is
something most photographers cringe at,
when looking at the images. Let's be honest, we detest it, which is
why we are often willing to go to desperate measures to try and avoid it.
However, we need to understand that trying to avoid high ISO's will
force us to compromise on other light parameters, which invertedly can lead
to the opposite effect of what we are trying to achieve, by actually
creating more noise than necessary.
In this video, I will teach you how to avoid this pitfall by pointing out the
four most common mistakes in settings - that lead to too much noise - in your image.
Here with Pangolin Photo Safaris, we mostly specialize in nature and wildlife
photography, with our guests, while utilizing the natural light, given
to us, to tell stories and create beautiful images. While we try to
shoot our images correctly in camera,
there's a few tricks
you can keep in mind to increase the amount of detail that will be visible
in the final outcome of your image. In order to do so, we will have
to touch on a few technical parts of your exposure and histogram.
But if you bear with me till the end, you'll be able to significantly
reduce grain in your image and create a more detailed and clearer photograph.
Due to the lack of control about our life conditions and wildlife photography,
we often encountered technically difficult scenarios that drive
our ISO up, such as low light conditions due to overcast weather, rain
and dense vegetation...as well as wildlife activity before and after sunrise.
However, we also encounter challenging set-ups, from being forced to shoot
high contrast images with a large variety of brightness levels in
one single frame...such as dark and wet hippos in bright water, birds
against the sky or leopards in a tree.
What do these two scenarios have in common? Low light, and high contrast,
often both struggle with deep shadows and badly exposed parts of the image.
When faced with these dilemmas, we often fall back on creative
techniques that allow us to concentrate only on the highlights or only on
the shadows while intentionally clipping or crunching the brights and darks.
Check out Sabina's tutorial about creative captors to learn more about that.
However, sometimes we would like a more even exposure.
This is where we need an in-depth understanding of our dynamic
range. In a landscape shot,
for instance, we would simply take multiple frames with different
exposures and stack them in order to increase the amount of information,
both in the highlights and in the shadows...
without any compromise or loss of detail. In a wildlife shot, we are
unable to so-called 'bracket' an image with multiple exposures,
as the animal is moving.
Therefore, we will have to utilize the full dynamic range of our camera.
To keep you all on track with my train of thought, I quickly wanted to touch on
what the dynamic range of your camera is.
Don't worry, I won't take long.
The dynamic range is the range of light your camera is able to capture and
retrieve within a raw image. The larger the dynamic range of your camera,
the more information you'll find both in the highlights and then the shadows of
your image...and you will be able to better save things like crinkles in an elephant,
the eye color of a shady eye, highlights on what animals, or clouds in the sky.
This being said, we need to understand that a camera will never
be able to match the levels of dynamic range that our eyes can see.
The human eye is one of the best eyes in the mammal kingdom.
Being able to see up to 21 stops of light. In comparison, none of the
new flagship cameras of Sony, Canon, Nikon or Olympics, even reach 15 stops of light.
On top of that, we don't just take one frame with our eyes,
but create composites
by putting multiple frames together, which we can focus on different
points, creating a well exposed and incredibly sharp image. Due to the
lack of dynamic range in our cameras,
we're not able to recreate low light or high contrast images within one
single frame, the same way as we can see it unfolding in front of
our eyes, without running it through some form of post-production.
So coming back to our challenge of how to avoid too much noise.
Noise is the grainy look of our image.
When our ISO has gotten high, it diminishes our details
and clarity in our animal.
However, it is important to know that noise is predominantly found
in the dark areas of an image.
While light areas can also be noisy,
the larger quantity is found in darker tones.
And it doesn't stop at that. Noise is mostly found in areas that you try to
brighten or lighten and retrospective to make the details come out.
That happens anytime you pull the shadows out of an image towards the plus
side, which you will know, if you do edit your images...happens in many cases.
As we're usually trying to bring both...more details into the dark
areas, by lifting the shadows, and more details into the bright areas
by taking unnecessary highlights out.
The simple conclusion based on this observation is to avoid shooting
so dark that you're required to pull out your shadows in post production.
We call it shooting to the right, as you tend to overexpose your
shutter a bit. Let me point out the four most common mistakes
that will lead us to shoot to dark...and afterwards I'll be able to show
you the most important part of this tutorial, which is why a low ISO
does not necessarily result in less noise.
By the end, you should be able to utilize the existing dynamic range of
your camera to the best of its ability.
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Reason #1 The reason why a lot of photographers like to shoot darker, is to preserve the highlights.
It is absolutely correct
that it is easier to retrieve details in the shadows, than it is in the highlights.
Noisy details, but at least they're there.
Once you're clipped your highlights, you will have a snow white spot
that lacks any sort of information.
Therefore, we try hard to avoid shooting too bright. Turning on your
highlight alerts on your camera,
that will show you your 'blinkies' is a very helpful tool to detect
when you're clipping your white point. Also keep in mind that
highlights are particularly important within your subject itself.
Hotspots in clipped highlights in the background can be turned
down without the lack of detail, necessarily being a problem.
Check out my tutorial on the new local adjustment masks in
Lightroom to learn more about that.
To sum it up, avoiding clipped highlights and your subject should not lead you
to overcompensate by shooting too dark and creating deep shadows either.
While you don't lose all information in the shadows,
they simply won't look great.
Try and find middle ground in order to create a high dynamic
range image by shooting so bright that you just don't clip your white point.
Your image will not look great in camera, because neither the highlights, nor
the shadows, are now properly visible, as there might've been to your eye.
However, in post production, you will have enough information on both ends
of your spectrum to bring the details of the highlights back in while pulling
the shadows out without causing too much grain, color noise, and distorted colours.
Reason #2n The second reason a lot of photographers should slightly
under expose, is to create a more saturated in contrast intense image.
This is something that is particularly important when you are shooting JPEG file.
Your color style, white balance, and to some extent, exposure
determine the final look of your image,
as you do not have much information to play with.
However in a raw file, it is not crucial that your image looks saturated and full
of contrast to start up with. Matter of fact, a raw file is a heap of information
that still requires your input.
You still have to put it all together and therefore any raw file will look
comparatively flat, and lacks contrast.
Do not shoot intentionally dark, to tweak your raw file, to look punchy
from the starting point. Rather try and shoot a correct exposure, which is
determined by both your metering, as well as your overall light distribution
on your image. With evaluative matrix or multi metering, you will have to
underexpose when your background is significantly darker than your subject...
and overexpose, when your background is significantly brighter.
Remember, as long as you don't burn your highlights, you will have a lot more
clarity and detail in your final shot.
If you do not have to brighten your shadows, you do not
lose any quality whatsoever.
If you lower your highlights in turn.
So what I'm trying to say, well, you should try and shoot as
correctly as possible in camera.
Don't expect your LCD screen on the camera to show you a correct representation
of your final edited raw file.
Therefore, lack of contrast should not lead you to systematically
underexpose. Rather shoot brighter to avoid noise in the final outcome.
Reason #3. A lot of photographers shoot darker to allow for faster shutter
speeds in wildlife photography.
Having a fast shutter speed is absolute priority in wildlife photography, as
it will allow for crisp and sharp images.
You need to freeze the motion and time to avoid motion blur. Shooting
dark, or, or to the left means
you're asking for less light on your sensor, that in turn allows
for your shutter to open and close faster on aperture priority.
Therefore you avoid blurry images while keeping your ISO nice
and low at the very same time.
It seems like a win-win situation, initially...
but using your exposure as a tool to create a fast shutter is not the best approach.
Having to pull the shadows out of the dark areas, will create noise in
those areas, and therefore reduce the clarity and sharpness of your image, after all.
Rather open your aperture wide or utilize the correct ISO to achieve a
fast shutter speed. Last but not least...
Reason #4 photographers shoot darker to keep the ISO low.
In a very similar thought pattern to mistake
number three, photographers cringe when their ISO reaches a certain
level...and start compromising by reducing the exposure to keep the ISO low.
The darker the image, the less sensor sensitivity is required.
It might be intentional, or even unintentional, as they don't notice
for the first stop or two that the exposure has turned out darker than intended.
It can be very difficult to keep paying attention to your
exposure bar, at all times.
However, this approach is particularly harmful as noise levels increase
exponentially in the darks,
the higher the ISO is...in other words, while you've found noise in the darks
and low ISO's, it will be so much worse on higher ISO's.
How much you can push your camera,
obviously depends on the individual sensors.
A rule of thumb states that full-frame, low megapixel and a newer
sensor, can generally be pushed harder than a crop sensor, high pixel count or
an older camera. Regardless of your camera,
please do not expect to shoot all wildlife images at an ISO 800 and lower.
It will often excel those values. To sum up mistake number four.
Rather shoot at a higher ISO on a brighter image than a lower ISO on a darker image.
As the brightest shot will show less noise.
Some of these solutions might sound counterintuitive to a photographer as it
will require you to choose a higher ISO
than you deem necessary.
Therefore, I want to show you that ISO does not equal the same noise at all times.
It depends on your exposure,. How close you are to your subject,
and the contrast in your image.
This will be true irrespective to what brand or camera you're shooting.
Some cameras might simply show it to a stronger degree than others, depending
on their dynamic range, and low light performance.
I will show you a range of images, shot both on different ISOs and exposures
to show you that low ISOs does not necessarily equal less noise.
Image number one, check out these two shots of a hippo shot against a bright background
taken with my 1-DX II. The darker exposure, which was shot on a much lower ISO,
shows significantly more noise in the areas where had to retrieve
the detail by pulling the shadows out. The image with the much higher
ISO, seems to be much cleaner.
Check out image number two.
I know this topic is quite controversial with wildlife photographers and
difficult to compare as camera bodies perform on different levels.
How do you prefer to shoot?
And have you found yourself struggling with noise in the dark?
Please leave me your experience in the comment section, just below.
In the end, it is about physics...and without going into too much technical detail, in this specific
tutorial, I hope my visual examples were able to show you the different effects,
your exposure and ISO levels, have on the amount of grain you create within your image.
Have fun exploring the dynamic range of your personal camera.
And remember that your raw image does not yet need correspond to
what you see with your own eyes.
If you still struggle with noise, check out Charl's Lightroom
tips on our YouTube channel.
I'll see you the next time.
Bye-bye.