Editing high dynamic range images in PhotoLab 5

Oh that’s even more difficult to keep out of trouble.
0000000-1111111 (128) possibility’s to get it wrong… :crazy_face:

about minor setback:
finally the sun is out, i woke up after a BBQ with too much food and stuf to hoos it down and thought after a week of rain let’s go out. take the doggy and go for a small stroll in the neigbourhood.
took the bag checked camera and…
four battery’s flat! So all four on the charger, geesh so long no photo taken?
:cry:

Agreed about the diffraction. It can make the difference between a sharp image and a sharp image.

I did a lot of calculation and found that, for most full frame cameras, the optimum aperture before diffraction is actually f/10 and I never use anything smaller than that unless it is for things like fireworks or when I want intentional starburst on points of light.

I also use TruDoF-Pro on my iPhone, which is a DoF/hyperfocal distance calculator that takes diffraction into account. I like it because, once you set the blur spot diameter, it imposes limits on what you can set as aperture. I set the BSD to 20µ instead of 30µ because the pixel pitch allows for the smaller diameter. On sensors with smaller pixels, you can actually drop it to 10µ but that then ends up limiting the minimum aperture to f/5, which can be a bit restrictive for hyperfocal distance with landscape shots.

Using f/10, I get a hyperfocal distance of 49.6m and a nearest sharp focus of 24.8m, which is still far in excess of anything remotely near to the camera. f/16 is definitely introducing some diffraction.

Yessss!!! Is this a record? :crazy_face:

Hi Joanna, thanks for the feedback, these values are for mid- or large-format cam I guess? Mine were for the D750 with a circle of confusion of 0.03 mm

yes, i got 2 bars of one of them and 1 dark no startup, 1 1 bar and 1 blinking red…
(i don’t dear to look at the last one …remembered i have 1 more…)
3 for my m43 and 2 for my fz200. All same batteries.

Nope. If they were for 5" x 4", the CoC would be 150µ and for 6cm x 7cm, it would be 58µ.

Most general info on DoF seems to talk about 30µ for SLRs, but this is the old measurement used for 35mm film.

George Duvos (the author of TrueDoF-Pro) has done a lot of research and writing on the optical science behind diffraction and his site is a mine of useful information, as long as you don’t mind having your mind blown by some of the formulae behind the calculations. He has a page on DoF and high resolution sensors, which I consider as my Bible when it comes to these matters. It is from reading that, that made me want to try lower CoCs - and it does make a difference.

Thanks for that.

which is the same text as in your manual

Joanna, while you are right, that 80-200mm is an old lens :slight_smile:


= no VR

Yes old, but still one of the best in class.

Wolfgang is right - I had the latest 80-200 for sports work, but sold it long ago when I stopped doing sports photography. Then I realized I needed one for other work, and bought a very old one, without the built-in motor, but the glass was clean. Regardless, it’s not the fault of the lens - this old Bogen tripod seemed especially unstable with the lens raised up to eye level. The obvious cure was a cable release, which I quickly found out isn’t so simple on that camera. My new tripod was supposed to arrive yesterday, but they had delivery problems. It’s now scheduled to arrive on Monday, tomorrow.

Thanks for the reminder - I don’t have many lenses with VR, but yes, Nikon says to turn the function off when the lens is used on a tripod.

According to what I saw in the D750 viewfinder, my 80-200 was more “stable” when I held it in my hands!

In my opinion, my old 80-200 has excellent glass, and is a superb lens. It just lacks “air conditioning”, meaning “convenience features”. If I could afford it, I’d upgrade to the newest model, but that’s not a priority.

If ever possible, don’t raise the center column (at least not much) as it turns a stable tripod into a monopod. And keep off the critical exposure range when you are not using MirrorUp + Remote Control.

There are several versions of this lens. The best and last one was the AF-S. That’s the one I’ve.

If you’re interested

https://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/AFNikkor/AF-Nikkor80200mm/index4.htm

http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html

George

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Thanks George. And you are right. The AF-S was one of the best zooms nikon ever made. And both have Macro functionality (8cm closest focus distance as I recall)

And regardig DOF (also @Joanna) DoF is the one thing, but let’s not forget that these lenses deliver best sharpness and overall optical performance at F8. (40 lp/mm (AF-S even more) at MTF50 even in the corners which is awesome)

I don’t know of a macro function on my 80-200 2.8 af-s. There isn’t. There’s also the smaller brother in this series the 28-70 2.8 af-s. That’s my daily lens.

I made a program to see how the coc is developing with different distances, aperture and focal length. My intresse was not what is in the dof, but also what is out of the dof. And comparing with different sensor sizes.

George

Speaking now, with what I’m doing now, there are so many things I would do differently, and will in the future when possible:

a) I didn’t deliberately use f/22 - that’s because I was testing for sensor dirt, and set the camera to f/22 to check, and “forgot” to check before taking this photo. All things being equal, I prefer f/8 unless there is a good reason to use something else. I guess f/10 is even better, although I don’t know that I could see the difference.

b) I bought the older 80-200 because of price, knowing it didn’t have the built-in motor. KEH gave me an affordable price. I think it will cost me $1200 or so for the newer model of this lens, which I don’t really use all that often. Maybe instead of buying the Voigtlander lens for my M10 for around $1,000, I should have bought a new 80-200-s lens, with motor. Spilt milk, it doesn’t matter any more, too late. But between spending a few hundred dollars for the tripod, and around $700 for the new Wolf oven, and a few hundred dollars on getting my new (free, but damaged) iPad set up, I need to slow down, or sell some things.

c) Tripods - I’m sure that’s where I messed up my photo, as I raised the camera to eye level. As Wolfgang said, I was turning it into a monopod, free to wobble all over. Never again. I may have a right-angle viewfinder for the D750 - if so, I will use that next time, and on my new tripod. Not sure what I’ll do with my old tripod, maybe give it away.

d) Fotoguido - your changes to my image make it seem even sharper than my version, which I thought was already sharp. I guess not. One question - how did you know to correct the horizon by -.5 ?? Don’t be sorry, I want it perfect, but judging by my eyes obviously wasn’t good enough. What part of the image did you use, and how did you adjust it so perfectly? It looks now as good as had Joanna taken and posted it. Or put another way, it looks like the type of image I used to dream of being able to make. It looks better than anything I can do. Yikes, but I did take it… this forum must be contagious!

e) I’ve ordered the remote release - should arrive today. With the D750, it will do auto-mirror-up, with a 2 second delay. One more issue solved.

f)

I need to create a written check-list that I can refer to, with all the variables I need to verify are set properly. I thought I could do this in my head, but obviously not. …starting with be sure the memory card is in the camera, and formatted, and that the battery is charged.

g)

I need to work on Selective Tone, maybe spend this afternoon on it, until I both know how to use it, AND so I understand it. I need both. Right now it’s as clear as mud in my mind. To me it’s some magical tool that improves picture quality, somehow. Suggestion to DxO, if I’m so confused about this, maybe others are too - why not get PhotoJoseph to make a Webinar about it? Apparently it’s something only available in PhotoLab, so it should be a wonderful selling point.

h)
Homework assignment - I need to read:
http://www.georgedouvos.com/depth-of-field-and-diffraction-and-high-resolution-sensors.html
and
https://imaging.nikon.com/support/digitutor/d750/functions/metering.html

Whew, that’s a lot. This feels like I’m back in school. …and that’s a GOOD thing!

Happy to help you, Mike: doubleclick in the middle of the image for using the buildings as reference. Then pres Ctrl.+G and use the gridlines to correct perfectly with the Horizon-tool. Easy.

This is - by the way - the first thing anybody should do BEFORE correcting anything with Viewpoint e.g. forcing parallels. It took me awhile to experience this, often ending up in a total mess… :slight_smile:

I’m using PL5 on macOS. If I double-click on an image, it jumps to full-size.
If I do “command-G” nothing happens.
I’ll have to dig around in the settings to find where to select the grid lines.

You would laugh at me if I explained how I do it now - by doing the best I can by eye, and then drag the window to the edge of the screen to verify I’m close enough.

I’m now also finding it confusing to remember who did which virtual image - is there any to find that while within PL5, using a virtual image that I did not create?

Press only the „G“ key to switch the grid on/off.

The image has about 0.2% burnt R and G pixels (see screenshot below), 1/3 stop less exposure would have been perfect. I also see that the shot was taken at 1s/320 and f/13, which is on the high side. f/13 provides very even acutance, although at lower levels than possible between f/8 and f/11 based on what I see here.