e6filmuser wrote:
What is all this about continuous shooting mode? I only ever shoot single frame.
I use Topaz DeNiose 6 plugin in PS. I have just used it to barely remove the noise in one of your images. Do you thinkit has lost sharpness?
Having been a transparency film user for most of my life, I agree with getting it right at the time of the exposure. Unfortunately, noise is far more of a problem with digital than it (grain) ever was with film.
Harold
Hi Harold,
I shoot almost all the time in continuous, manual focus. My insects rarely stay still, and it's impossible (just for example) to set a Hummingbird hawk-moth shot up for just the one frame with the gear I have. Even with a static subject, like the darter above, I'll still rock back and forth through the focal plane for a second. Trying to view your focusing in daylight on the S120's LCD screen is a joke, and my focus peaking magnification only works when it wants to - it'll work for one insect and then not for the next three, weird but there we go
So I hedge my bets, fire a dozen frames and know that at least one, and most times two, and sometimes three or more frames will be in focus. Without a tripod it makes it doubly difficult - the IS in the little S120 is a gimmick as well, to be fair, so I use all the tricks I can to get a shot - there is no given success rate unfortunately. Throw in a bit of the west coast's notorious breeze and I am sometimes (most times to be fair) completely amazed I get a shot at all, lol. And that's pretty much all I want - a decent shot.
Topaz DeNoise? I'll go and have a look, thank you. I think the photo you worked on is a great improvement, so that is something worth looking at - great stuff.
Like you, I grew up in the film era and in a previous lifetime sold quite a bit of work from a pair of Nikons for specialist industries. There was no post processing then at all, and I never did any macro whatsoever. I shudder to think of the opportunities I must have missed.
"Topaz DeNoise? I'll go and have a look, thank you. I think the photo you worked on is a great improvement, so that is something worth looking at - great stuff."
Having just downloaded the demo 30 day version of this and played with it for half an hour or so, I now know I have to save up $80 without fail in the next 30 days. WHAT A USEFUL PIECE OF SOFTWARE. It turns my S120 into a higher ISO machine without blinking. I've just changed a desktop picture into a noise-free version that had my children stopping to ask what on earth I had done to improve it (and one of them is a BA honours graphic design kid).
Talk about magic in a bottle. THANK YOU Harold, I have lived and learned something truly spectacular today. I've used NR before, but never with the ease of use that Topaz gives me. I suspect it will give a small compact camera's IQ a huge jolt compared to others, but I am not complaining.
"Topaz DeNoise? I'll go and have a look, thank you. I think the photo you worked on is a great improvement, so that is something worth looking at - great stuff."
Having just downloaded the demo 30 day version of this and played with it for half an hour or so, I now know I have to save up $80 without fail in the next 30 days. WHAT A USEFUL PIECE OF SOFTWARE. It turns my S120 into a higher ISO machine without blinking. I've just changed a desktop picture into a noise-free version that had my children stopping to ask what on earth I had done to improve it (and one of them is a BA honours graphic design kid).
Talk about magic in a bottle. THANK YOU Harold, I have lived and learned something truly spectacular today. I've used NR before, but never with the ease of use that Topaz gives me. I suspect it will give a small compact camera's IQ a huge jolt compared to others, but I am not complaining. ...Show more →
I checked the Topaz website. Sometimes they have amazing deals on collections of their products but nothing at the moment. Once you buy one of their products you have it for life, with free updates.
Two others you might like to look at at are InFocus and Detail. Topaz advice is to use DeNoise before any other process. I use it again if traces of noise apper before the final save.
I've tried the Detail demo before, but there was a glitch with it and it never plugged in to PS, and neither did it always work as a standalone. I haven't bothered going back to the Topaz studio since, but the DeNoise software seems to run just fine. I might give Detail another shot as when it worked it was great. InFocus sounds like wizardry though....... surely not?
DrHook wrote:
I've tried the Detail demo before, but there was a glitch with it and it never plugged in to PS, and neither did it always work as a standalone. I haven't bothered going back to the Topaz studio since, but the DeNoise software seems to run just fine. I might give Detail another shot as when it worked it was great. InFocus sounds like wizardry though....... surely not?
I had to reinstall various Topaz plugins more than once when I was running them in PS7 in W7. There were also some teething problems in W10. There is still an issue in using more than one option at a time in Detail, if batch processing.
Infocus deals with various kinds of blur, including motion blur. I normally use the OOF option if no other sharpening
A couple of more recent ones with the S120 + Raynox 150 + Marumi 200 combo. I'm seriously grateful for the intro to DeNoise. It's made a great difference. I also find that I am using the lighting rack almost for every shot now. It helps keep the shutter speed perfectly high enough that I can shoot handheld in almost any light now. Comments and criticism (other than "Get a proper camera!") are most welcome.
DrHook wrote:
A couple of more recent ones with the S120 + Raynox 150 + Marumi 200 combo. I'm seriously grateful for the intro to DeNoise. It's made a great difference. I also find that I am using the lighting rack almost for every shot now. It helps keep the shutter speed perfectly high enough that I can shoot handheld in almost any light now. Comments and criticism (other than "Get a proper camera!") are most welcome.
An excellent set.
This may be of interest, Define 2 being as good as Topaz software:
Thanks Harold, I'm very happy you approve - no suggestions for improving anything, though? I'm keen to find out if anyone has alternative suggestions for lighting arrangements that can be used with a compact camera. Is the DeNoise I've done about right?
Thanks also for the heads up to that software - I'll go and look at that later tonight.
DrHook wrote:
Thanks Harold, I'm very happy you approve - no suggestions for improving anything, though? I'm keen to find out if anyone has alternative suggestions for lighting arrangements that can be used with a compact camera. Is the DeNoise I've done about right?
It looks very good and you ought to move to topics of your own. It is always possible to do different (better is a matter of opinion). For example, the spider and the damselfly are not quite on the diagonal. It might have been worth shooting, or cropping, versions where they are.You might still prefer the current versions but you will have the option.
I agree with you on all your other points though - beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Always has been and always will be. The trick to life is realising that there really is no right, nor wrong. Do what you want to do and live with the remnants of the dark matter that is left over.
DrHook wrote:
Topics of my own? Ha, I don't think so.
I agree with you on all your other points though - beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Always has been and always will be. The trick to life is realising that there really is no right, nor wrong. Do what you want to do and live with the remnants of the dark matter that is left over.
I'm happy to live with dark matter but lighting for photos is problem!
Essentially, my bias is more to the subject than to the image. Although I admire the images with highly-diffused lighting, I think they look rather like studio images and are not my thing personally.
I was on this forum probably 10 years ago or so. I hadn't been on in a while and forgot my user name, so I opened a new account. I've been shooting photos for a while, but have gotten into macros a bit recently with the kids-- it is easy to go out and snap a few in the backyard garden in a few minutes that could just as easily be taken out in a nature preserve.
I'm definitely still learning.
Canon 6D, Canon 200mm 2.8L II prime, Kenko Extension Tubes (12mm, 20mm, and 36mm), Yongnuo TN24EX flash
ISO250, 1/180, F6.3
Would love to hear any suggestions or tips from the experts.
Good effort. A smaller aperture would have sharpened the other antenna.
A different angle, to leave out those foreground buds would remove their slight distarction. Its always worth shoting a variety of aperture and angle, also framing.
