Something came between.
The lioness picture below was taken with 16 MP Sony A580 and Sony 70-400mm on 250mm, F10 and 1/1000.
The picture of the cranes above was taken at 330mm F10 and 1/1000
Stunningly beautiful photo. Wow. One in a million!!!
How much did you have to pay the lion to pose in such a perfect position? 
Iâve got a few questions, but not for now.
@Woldek: do you want to be marked as spammer? Just asking.
Apparently this thread leaves the waters of âremotely related to DxO PLâ.
I enjoy the music I bought and am still buying, just to value the artists and their work and donât need two dozen YT-links = possible copyright infringements, but who cares anyway, right?
To be clear: I was not watching the links you collected in no less than 4 posts. In my eyes, this is a forum for software related questions or exchange of experiences. Posting YT links of music pieces has at first glance absolutely nothing to do with the purpose of the forum. At second glance and especially in this âMike Myers Showâ entertainment corner of that forum, on could ask about the connection between music and photography, and if photographers hear music with their inner ear when they find some special subjects.
But thatâs an individual experience for everybody. I often âhearâ Elgarâs English Landscapes when Iâm on tour in UK as this music is very descriptive. Itâs an inspiration back and forth, many music pieces talk about photographs, photographers, painters, paintings, why not. But is here the right place for this?
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Sorry, I canât see the humour in those posts. Maybe you could use some smilies next time? Else 
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Late last night, I discovered this YouTube video that explains what I already knew about Nikon focus, and adds a few things I was unaware of. It also has suggestions for how I can resolve something @Joanna pointed out a few weeks ago, when my focus point was not directly over a birdâs eye as I expected it to be.
In fact, that gear was the first DSLR I was pleased with in my life! It had the first generation of this new type of sensors that in one single blow increased the dynamic range by two full stops. Sony A580 and A55 was the first to get it and the third was Nikon D7000. The lens was a pretty OK G-lens too.
I have been quite a few times to East-Africa and several times to Tanzania and the fantastic National Parks and Conservation Areas there, like Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Lake Manyara. They are all very different. Serengeti is enormous with its endless grasslands spotted with kopjes which is swahili for the more common geographic concept âinselbergâ. It is here you easily find the lions and the really big herds of wildebeest and zebras that every year moves in âthe great migrationâ between Serengeti in Tanzania to Masai Mara in Kenea.
Still the most beautiful park in Tanzania I have seen is Tarangire with all its majestic Baobab trees. When Tarangire is in season it is probably the best in Tanzania but it was full with tzetse flies that was really irritating.
The first time Ngorongoro was fully accessible - even the forest were som really majestic elephant males with tusks so big that they almost touch the ground. The second time was comparatively a disappointment since the roads through the forest are were closed.
In Kenya I have seen most of the more important parks like Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, the vast areas of Tsavo East and Tsavo West but since my favourite animals are the very social elephants and spotted hyenas, I love Amboseli the most also because it maybe is the most beautiful of them all, just under Mount Kilimanjaro.
You have VERY good taste in music!!
If you donât already know, check out the tour dates:
maybe this one:
Two tits flying free in the air,
says the one to the other keep a lookout for peanuts!
Hmm⌠I suspect DxO doesnât mind our off-topic posts and discussions, as long as we stick to the words at the end of this topic heading:
off-topic-advice-experiences-and-examples-for-images-being-processed-in-dxo-photolab
From my little corner of the world, while the types of photographs I want to capture is constantly changing, one thing is still stable - all my photos are always processed in PhotoLab.
Perhaps that is because I decided to always capture photographs (maybe not snapshots) in RAW mode. Therefore, before being emailed or posted, they need to be changed to âjpgâ, which means they go through my PhotoLab sessions either on my Mac mini, or on my new MacBook Pro (which has bumped my older computers into my âalso ranâ hardware. I was happy with PhotoLab on my (Intel processor Mac mini, until I observed that it took one or two minutes to process images with the Intel chip, while the MacBook Pro with M2 chip did this almost instantly.
Of course, what Iâve learned from @Joanna, is the importance of having CONTROL, which means limiting what decisions the camera makes, and leaves ALL my options available for use in processing (assuming I still know how to do so).
Obviously we each use different hardware, software, and methods of capturing images, but the one âconstantâ as I see it is PhotoLab. I suspect that is part of the reason DxO puts up with these lengthy discussions, from so many points of view.
(To me, it doesnât matter what kind of a camera is used, as long as it provides the photographer adequate options without too many limitations, to capture good images. And for a personal note, if Joanna can create acceptable images from ancient, less-powerful cameras, if Iâm smart about how to do so, so can I !! Sometimes I just want to use an old camera, just for the heck of it, and because it is fun, and because I enjoy it.)
My D780 is all configured for shooting ML photos in Live View, but I havenât been able to go back to where the birds are yet. I usually leave my camera all set up for anything I find intriguing, and when I looked out my window earlier today my mind switched to over drive - rush to put on 300mm lens, and take a series of photos, starting with just a ârecord shotâ and continuing to shoot through to the point where I liked what I saw. It didnât take much manipulation to come up with this image, although I fiddled with the DxO Photolab settings, trying ideas that my imagionation (my word) came up with. The camera was fully configured for my ML test, and the only thing I did for this photo was to switch it back to DSLR mode, which Iâm more comfortable with anyway.
780_5110 | 2024-05-21.nef (31.1 MB)
780_5110 | 2024-05-21.nef.dop (14.6 KB)
The red and blue âcarsâ go out for a âdriveâ almost every day, and unless one of them runs out of gas, they return under their own power. Not sure what the problem was with the red car this time. It took about eight photos to get one that I enjoyed - maybe the composition was the main thing.
Iâm sure Joanna will just laugh at me, and say âwhy bother?â, but I enjoy taking shots like this. JoJu will likely tell me how it would have been better had I shot it with a normal mirrorless camera.
I donât understand the strange colors in the churned-up water behind the white car; I guess the camera noticed something I wasnât aware of.
As always, you are all free to play with it, if you have ideas on how to make it better. Iâve already done that, three times, and this is the best I know how to do.
To me, photography is supposed to be fun, and this certainly was. Something is happening, grab camera and lens and try to make something interesting out of what I see in front of me. (I know, thatâs not the best way to go about things, but my mind is always open to new photo possibilities!)
(I expect to be at B&H Photo quite soon, and will check out the Z9. No plans to buy one, but Iâd like to see what it feels like. I donât have the âdesireâ like I had over a decade ago for the D3. Who knows, maybe Iâll come home with a long lens. Likely not, but who knows⌠Itâs no fun to have a champaign taste, with a beer budget! 
The thing is that I didn´t use that KonicaMinolta D7D on the first trip I went to just after buying that camera (trip to East Afrika (Kenya 2006). I felt really uncomfortable learning that long term storage problems of this then new tech were not solved properly (and still isn´t really if you ask me - there is still not a common raw format agreed on in the camera business). On that trip I took my analog gear instead. The Los Roches trip to Venezuela was some year later :-(. Luckily enough I also had brought a small Ricoh Caplio 7 compact that saved me then.
I had a mobile early in my job then since mobile phones was a Swedish invention originally made by the Swedish state agency and later developed in cooperation with Ericsson invention (by a guy called Ăsten Mäkitalo) (an Ericsson 388 ( [Ericsson GH 388 - Full phone specifications (gsmarena.com)] (Ericsson GH 388 - Full phone specifications) but they did not have built in cameras and did not either support âdual bandâ which made them useless in America.
Wiki on Mäkitalo
"Ăsten Mäkitalo, born August 27, 1938 in Koutojärvi, Hietaniemi parish (which is as far north in Sweden you can get - my remark)), died June 16, 2011,[1] was a Swedish electrical engineer active as an innovation researcher and product developer in telecommunications. Ăsten Mäkitalo was a key person in the development of NMT, the worldâs first fully automatic mobile phone system and the basis of modern mobile telephony, and he was also one of the key people in the development of GSM.
Mäkitalo instead came to lead a number of exceptional research and development projects at the Radiolaboratoriet, which was created in 1975 at the Televerket (the Swedish government agency for tele communications) and where Mäkitalo became its manager and chief engineer in 1977. In the years 1991â1996 he was CEO of Telia Research AB, between 1996 and 2005 he worked as CTO at Telia, later at Telia Mobile and then as Senior Vice President at Telia Sonera Mobile Business."
Why switch? whatâs wrong with using âMLâ mode for this shot?
Where do I start?
- Why did you lower the global exposure instead of just the highlights?
- Why did you raise the colour temperature? That would be a major contributor to the colour in the wash.
- Why did you raise the saturation? That made the coloration even more obvious.
- Why didnât you raise the Chromatic Aberration sliders to max and tick the Purple Fringes box? This reduces the purple in the wake.
- Why did you use both Lens Sharpness and Unsharp Mask? The Unsharp Mask settings actually had no effect.
Here is my attemptâŚ
Are you sure your mind is open? So far, like you did with your early tutors, you seem Helle-bent on ignoring sound advice and keeping on turn out mediocre results.
Nothing, but I had no time - from beginning to end I had one minute before the boats moved too far to my right, and I simply turned on the D780 raised it for a quick test shot for exposure (seemed OK) and took about 7 shots as the group of boats moved from left to right. I didnât have time to even think about âMLâ mode, I wanted to use what Iâm used to.
I thought the scene was too bright, but yes, adjusting the highlights makes more sense.
Color temperature - this happened a little before sunset, and my camera is set to 5600K. changing the color temperature seemed to me to make the water more realistic.
Color saturation - on my screen, I thought it would brighten up the colors a bit more. Apparently mistake on my part.
Because Iâve never done this before - need to learn it and add it to my own âtools boxâ. Ignorance - which is no excuse.
In retrospect, I think I should have just bumped the contrast up slightly, but that probably was not needed. No reason, at the time I thought it might helpâŚ
No, Iâm not sure. I know I donât think as clearly as I used to, and I certainly donât have the talent you have, and I certainly donât fully understand PhotoLab. Perhaps I should limit my changes to things Iâm more sure of. Iâm 80. My middle brother, 78, is a lawyer, and seems to be far more aware of his world than I am. My youngest brother, 76, was diagnosed with MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) a few years now, which led to dementia. I worry that my mind, and my memory (which never was very good) is getting worse, but my Clinical Psychologist assures me that I am fine. Compared to you, with your experience, and your knowledge, I figureI am, at best, a mediocre photographer, and I will never reach the level that you are at. My first reaction to what you wrote is to stop using PL tools that I obviously donât understand well enough to use them effectively.
On the other hand, I like the photo I just posted, but I like your version more. I was puzzled why the white spray behind the boat looked so strange. In retrospect, I wish I had removed all my âcorrectionsâ and started over.
I will make a copy of my original image, and start all over again, based on what you have suggested here.
As to color temperature, I set the camera to 5600 and left it there, as you suggested, and I have always assumed that late in the day, the real color gets âwarmerâ. The change I made was to get the water to look more like what I saw with my eyes. Iâm now wondering if I should change the color temperature in the camera back to automatic.
I did notice the water behind the boat looked strange, but I had no idea why. In retrospect, maybe I should have started over, paying attention to the wake behind the âcarâ.
âŚand I think I will make a copy of my image, as-is, and one by one un-do the things I did in editing, until the water looks natural again.
Thank you!
Once again, I feel compelled to remind you that since there is no ML mode on a D780 body you canât possibly perform an ML test.
I will repeat again that Live View on every camera that has that feature is by its very nature mirrorless in that focusing is done directly on the sensor and the mirror is not being used. @Joanna could just as equally claim that live view on her D850 is a mirrorless mode since her mirror is not employed when shooting Live View. The only difference between her Live View and yours is the way it focuses on the sensor.
Unless itâs your goal to purposely confuse your readers you need to stop with this ML silliness and just call it Live View, which is what it is. The Live View on your camera is better then Live View on most DSLRs because of how itâs focuses on your sensor, but the fundamental concept of Live View on your camera is not much different than on other cameras with that feature. I still donât know why youâre having such a a problem with that concept.
Mark
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Wrong!!! lens Sharpness is part of the Optics Module adjustments and should always be left active to compensate for shortcomings in your lens.
Unsharp Mask is usually not necessary, especially if you use the four Fine Contrast sliders, which are much more effective and with less chance of artefacts.
Global Contrast affects everything for all tones, not just the three separate bands that Fine Contrast does. It can be a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
And, donât forget that you have the Tone Curve and Selective Tonality Sliders, both of which also affect global contrast. So, you can end up with a situation, if you use all of them, when one is raising contrast but the other two are fighting that increase by reducing it at the same time. Try to stick to the Tone Curve first and foremost and, only if that doesnât work, try one of the alternatives.
It does, which is why you will see, an image taken at 5600°K on the camera, in a âwarmâ lighting will look warm. If you want that effect, then leave it as it is but, in this case, you raised the colour temperature in post-processing, which will warm an already warm image even further and lose any sense of true whiteness.
No, no, no!!! Remember what we said long ago about being in control? Anyway, the temperature that you set in the camera is only for the benefit of in camera jpegs. RAW files take it as a hint, but you are free to change it in post-processing. Which is why I always leave the camera at 5600.
Sounds fine - I intended to type âD780 Live Viewâ. Me badâŚThat wonât confuse anyone.
As for the internet, several people are referring to this as the D780 mirrorless mode, the other being DSLR. Just calling it Live View isnât enough, as previous Nikon cameras used the old technology.
I meant to remove my addition to the default settings. I try not to mess with the default settings, even if Iâm not sure I understand them.
That bothers other people in this forum.
From now on, Iâll just write âD780 Live Viewâ.
Then nobody can complain.
Long ago, thatâs what I used to do.
Easy to follow your advice here.
How is it possible that my image was âalready warmâ when I left things at 5600K? As far as I know, the only thing I did to warm the image a bit were in PhotoLab, when I did it myself. I must be missing something, but how did PhotoLab recognize that my original image from the camera was âalready warmâ?
I think this answers my previous question, but if this were your image, taken in late afternoon, would you have left the color temperature at 5600? My thoughts were that the water didnât look right, so I âfixedâ that with the color temperature.
Question - if I has shot this image as I did, but with the color temperature set to something ridiculous, maybe 4500K, while the jpg would have looked totally wrong, what would PL do (if anything) to my raw image? I thought it would warm up the image. What would you have done, and when?