Shades of Focus

[Merlin5]

 

[LeicaEye]

Clever Title, Good Image.. Regards, L

--
I have walked in others shoes, I much prefer my own Berluti's ! ..

 

[Merlin5]

Clever Title, Good Image.. Regards, L

Thanks L, much appreciated.

 

[DNSJR]

excellent Merlin, interesting reflection in the girl's glasses

 

[Merlin5]

excellent Merlin, interesting reflection in the girl's glasses

Thanks Daniel. Yes, I like looking at the glasses reflection

 

[Satyaa]

Interesting shot. Did you process it to add a film-like grain?

If yes, I am curious to know what is involved. This appears to be in bright light at relatively low ISO. So, I don't think it's digital noise.

Thanks

 

[Merlin5]

Interesting shot. Did you process it to add a film-like grain?

If yes, I am curious to know what is involved. This appears to be in bright light at relatively low ISO. So, I don't think it's digital noise.

Thanks

Hi Satyaa. No, I didn't add any grain. I don't see any grain myself in this photo, but I've noticed noise or grain on other low ISO photos I've taken and always wondered why. I'd be interested if anyone can chime in on this and if they see the grain you're talking about. I totally believe you by the way, I'm just not seeing it myself. I suppose it could be a bit oversharpened causing that? Are you seeing it at 100% zoom or smaller?

 

[Satyaa]

@100% on a large screen

Edit. I am not sure what I am seeing either. I took another B&W photo from this forum and compared the two side-by-side. Both at 100%. Different subjects but the texture is smooth in one and grainy in the other.

Do you see difference between these two at 100?



Thanks.

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See my profile (About me) for gear and my posting policy.

 

[Satyaa]

Here's an example and good comparison I found.

If you look at this previous post of yours, pay attention to the ears of the two subjects at 100%. The grainy look is more in the second one (ISO 800) than in the first one (barely visible at ISO 500).

Puff: Black and White Photography Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Then look at this image at 100% and look at the ear, or any part of the skin. It doesn't have the same appearance.

Morning Routine: Black and White Photography Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

It is not a big deal because it is minor and only seen at 100%, not at usual viewing. I am just curious as to what it is I am seeing. It could also be different JPEG processing by different cameras.

I noticed it in B&W prints from film before. So, I was curious if you did any PP. It actually suits some subjects in B&W.

Thanks.

--
See my profile (About me) for gear and my posting policy.

 

[Merlin5]

@100% on a large screen

Edit. I am not sure what I am seeing either. I took another B&W photo from this forum and compared the two side-by-side. Both at 100%. Different subjects but the texture is smooth in one and grainy in the other.

Do you see difference between these two at 100?



Thanks.

Oh yeah, you're right, I see what you're talking about now. Mine has a sort of woven looking pattern across the entire image that I can see at 100%. I wonder why that happened.

I read that if noise appears at low ISO it means it's underexposed. But the pattern doesn't really look like noise. That said, I took a look at my unprocessed raw image in colour in lightroom and I wouldn't say it's underexposed, though the dark walls do appear to have some noise when I zoom right in. But i'm not sure that's what we're seeing with this pattern. Can this happen by converting colour images to black and white?

 

[Satyaa]

I shot this one on D7200 using Monochrome picture control. That's basically shooting in RAW and converting to B&W in DXO.

Watching the birds: Black and White Photography Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 

[Merlin5]

Here's an example and good comparison I found.

If you look at this previous post of yours, pay attention to the ears of the two subjects at 100%. The grainy look is more in the second one (ISO 800) than in the first one (barely visible at ISO 500).

Puff: Black and White Photography Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

Then look at this image at 100% and look at the ear, or any part of the skin. It doesn't have the same appearance.

Morning Routine: Black and White Photography Forum: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

It is not a big deal because it is minor and only seen at 100%, not at usual viewing. I am just curious as to what it is I am seeing. It could also be different JPEG processing by different cameras.

I noticed it in B&W prints from film before. So, I was curious if you did any PP. It actually suits some subjects in B&W.

Thanks.

Yeah, you're right, it's in both my images but not the morning routine image. Maybe the way I'm processing photos is wrong? I'm going to post my unprocessed image here, but just convert it to black and white and see if it still does the same thing at 100%.

 

[Satyaa]

Not a big deal. It just raised my curiosity. I don't know what could be causing it but it's not visible at normal viewing size.

Thanks.

 

[Merlin5]

Ok, this is the unprocessed version, with sharpening disabled, and just converted to black and white with lens correction and chromatic aberration enabled.

 

[Satyaa]

Yes, this is noticeably cleaner.

That grain could be the sharpening in your PP then.

 

[Merlin5]

Yes, this is noticeably cleaner.

That grain could be the sharpening in your PP then.

Yeah, the grain is not there! Oh dear, that's a worry, because it makes me concerned about how to process the way I want it to look without creating that pattern. Yes, it might be just the sharpening actually. Thank you for bringing this to my attention by the way. I'm going to try one more test. i'm going to post my processed version, but disable the sharpening, to see if that also doesn't have the grain.

 

[Satyaa]

It depends on both the camera/image and software. Also, there is noise reduction (which I use) and sharpening (which I don't). Depending on all those factors the results could be quite different.

My FZ2500 raw images don't take NR well in software. There is lot of noise in raw images but the camera does a better job in JPEG than my software does.

My D7200 images on the other hand, take NR very well and images come out clean. That's true with both Nikon software and DXO.

So, try different things and find out the balance where you like the results most.

 

[Merlin5]

My lightroom history for my processed version has vanished so I've done a quick processing similar to the original with just some texture and clarity added and sharpness at 0. Let's see what this looks like at 100%.





Yeah, this one looks ok too. Definitely my sharpening then.

 

[Satyaa]

Yes, what I see here is natural noise (very fine and smooth) in some dark areas only. No grainy look like the first image.

Edit: That grainy look does suit sometimes when you shoot something like an old crumbling house, or trees in fall with no leaves, etc. Not sure how to describe that mood.

Thanks.

--
See my profile (About me) for gear and my posting policy.

 

[Merlin5]

Yes, what I see here is natural noise (very fine and smooth) in some dark areas only. No grainy look like the first image.

Thanks.

Thanks for addressing this, Satyaa. I've learned something valuable tonight. That I must be careful with the sharpening.

But also, when I compare my original grainy image I posted with the last non sharpened processed image, the non sharpened image actually looks sharp enough to me and not really any less clear than the original. Would you agree? I shoot in raw and whenever I import into lightroom, the sharpening slider defaults to 40. And I usually go to 70 in most photos. So I guess I better leave it at 40 or even bring it down.