Make some noise ...

[k-hawinkler]

:worthless:


Here are 10 images I shot yesterday with the E-M5 II camera, 40-150/2.8 Pro lens, and 1.4x Teleconverter.
No exposure bias was used, nor was the exposure corrected in post. All images were identically processed from their .ORF files.
ISO values range from 1600-3200. The first image was shot at 18:40, the last at 19:44 MDT.
As you will see the lighting changed significantly during that time interval.


Pretty poor light, sun obscured by clouds.

Sun breaks through the clouds and illuminates opposing upper half of canyon.
The first turkey vultures have arrived at their nightly roost, apparently the largest group in New Mexico.

Now the canyon is entirely in the shadows of the mountains.

I think the camera and lens performed very well. Certainly I am not bothered by the noise.
The colors on my monitor pretty much agree with what I saw with my eyes in nature.

Speaking of noise, these vultures can't vocalize as most birds can. They are quiet. I sometimes can only hear their wings flap.


:worthless:

 

[Godfrey]

hmm from what I gather performing ETTR is pretty much what ISO100 on the E-m1 does right?

I'm not sure what you mean by that. If I were capturing for JPEGs, I'd just set up the camera for that and rely upon its metering ... It's pretty close to perfect.

Capturing for best raw files is what my explanation was all about. Doesn't matter what ISO setting.

G

 

[mazor]

I'm not sure what you mean by that. If I were capturing for JPEGs, I'd just set up the camera for that and rely upon its metering ... It's pretty close to perfect.

Capturing for best raw files is what my explanation was all about. Doesn't matter what ISO setting.

G

The E-M1's base ISO is 200. The ISO 100 setting is a pushed or pseudo ISO value that somehow over exposes the image by 1 stop than set in camera, and then brings is back down to 1 stop in the image processing stage of RAW and JPG. The idea of over exposing to the right, then reducing the exposure post shutter makes for a lowering the noise ie better than base ISO200, especially so in the shadow regions. The ISO 100 setting on the E-M1 is not recommended to be used for dynamic scenes as this process does reduce the dynamic range of the resulting image.

 

[Godfrey]

The E-M1's base ISO is 200. The ISO 100 setting is a pushed or pseudo ISO value that somehow over exposes the image by 1 stop than set in camera, and then brings is back down to 1 stop in the image processing stage of RAW and JPG. The idea of over exposing to the right, then reducing the exposure post shutter makes for a lowering the noise ie better than base ISO200, especially so in the shadow regions. The ISO 100 setting on the E-M1 is not recommended to be used for dynamic scenes as this process does reduce the dynamic range of the resulting image.

I suspect that the ISO 100 setting reduces photosite gain somehow, so that you're not "overexposing" technically. Even so, it's not good 'ETTR' if by overexposing you're reducing DR. ETTR should help enhance effective DR by holding the highlight values while extending the range at the bottom end since you have more data there to work with.

G

 

[mazor]

I guess then ETTR is a user interactive way to push the virtual ISO to a varying degree to not reduce the image DR. Whereas the ISO 100 on the E-M1 is just a preset ETTR like setting which is ETTR without taking into consideration the live histogram.

 

[mazor]

hmm Just tried this ETTR method on my mobile phone (Nokia 808) which does display live histogram. I think the meter on this phone is not the best as when set to no exposure compensation, the histogram is biased past the right already. I found I had to ETTL (expose to the left) by applying negative exposure compensation until the histogram top tails off the right.

I guess that is the reason some 808 users complained about highlight clipping.

 

[k-hawinkler]

My conclusion simply is to expose correctly, that is not clipping highlights or causing damage to tonal values. If the DR of the scene is too large for the sensor - which is quite often the case where I live - then one has to pull up the shades. Also Nik does a great job on noise reduction. I don't see a need for buzzwords, be they ETTR or ETTL or whatever.

 

[Godfrey]

My conclusion simply is to expose correctly, that is not clipping highlights or causing damage to tonal values. If the DR of the scene is too large for the sensor - which is quite often the case where I live - then one has to pull up the shades. Also Nik does a great job on noise reduction. I don't see a need for buzzwords, be they ETTR or ETTL or whatever.

Exactly.

The only difficulty is the definition of "correctly." To me it means: "the exposure is such that I get the results I was looking for." In most cases, that means unblocked highs with good detail and a long tonal range to a clean black. In some cases, however, I want a steep curve to emphasize some aspect of a photo. So the definition of correct exposure defies specification to some degree, but remains "... I get the results I was looking for."

G

 

[Annna T]

I suspect that the ISO 100 setting reduces photosite gain somehow, so that you're not "overexposing" technically. Even so, it's not good 'ETTR' if by overexposing you're reducing DR. ETTR should help enhance effective DR by holding the highlight values while extending the range at the bottom end since you have more data there to work with.

G

Are you only using the histogram to judge exposure, or also the highlights/shadows blinkies ? If you are using the blinkies, what value dud you choose for them to show up ? And which settings (contrast, etc.) are you using for the jpegs (supposing the raw are more important than the jpegs in the end) ?

 

[iiiNelson]

My only Micro 4/3 camera I have left is the Panasonic G1 but I found the NMOS sensor in that camera to behave somewhat similarly to the CCD in the M9's I owned in that I exposed to the center left more than the right. This works well with Sony cameras as pointed out earlier.

I went to a Leica workshop in San Fran when I lived in California and many were upset that ETTR didn't work out as well for them early in the M9 days. Everyone was sharing/trading secrets and techniques. I think I was one of only two people in the room that exposed to the left (the other guy was the Leica rep) but it wasn't really made a "point" until the guy sitting next to me saw my desktop picture on my laptop and asked if I took it/what camera I used for it. I pulled out my M9 and that's sort of how the discussion got started during a break. He asked if he could see the histograms (I didn't know what for at the time as I'm pretty much 100% self taught through reading) but he noticed most of the picture that caught his eye were ETT(C)L.

So for me it was just the way I did things with the G1 and it gave satisfactory results for me. I think the most important thing and the only correct technique IMO is to expose to style/taste. Well that's my method anyway.