* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #856 / Revived #076 on 2024 09 11 *

I assume you set ISO 2500 because you wanted a nice looking jpeg sooc. Unfortunately the walls of the building are still very noisy which is a shame given the very nice scene and composition you chose.

Fwiw to anyone interested, to minimise visible noise, especially in low light scenes, you need to get as much light as possible onto the sensor within your DOF and blur requirements. It is a low amount of light onto the sensor which results in a low signal to noise ratio in the raw data which in turn makes the noise more visible.

In a scene like this where there is no movement, assuming the trees weren't swaying too much in a breeze, and you are using a tripod the best way I know to maximise the amount of light onto the sensor is to ETTR.

1. Set the widest aperture (smallest f-number) that will give the DOF you want.

2. Set base ISO

3. Use the camera's live-view with a histogram and slow the shutter speed until important highlights just begin to clip - ie...push the histogram as close as possible to the right hand side until just before important highlights begin to clip.

This will maximise the amount of light onto the sensor within your dof and blur requirements which will result in maximising the SNR within those requirements. This will result in the minimum amount of visible noise after you then dial back the image lightness to what you want either in your raw converter, preferably, or in your sooc jpeg image editor. The benefits of ETTR are greater when using raw files (16 bits) rather than sooc jpegs (8 bits).

Your denoising app will thank you for making it much easier to clean up an ETTR'd raw file than a non ETTR'd jpeg.

Assuming base ISO on your camera is 100 then had you set base iso instead of ISO 2500 and ETTR'd, you would have been able to put at least an extra 4.66 stops of light onto the sensor. That's a huge amount of extra light and would have reduced the amount of visible noise very significantly.

If the display on the outdoor screen was changing frequently I would just simply take a few separate shots of the screen displays (exposed appropriately) and then in post insert the one that works best into the final image.

Anyway, just some food for thought to maybe consider in similar situations in the future.

Thank you kindly for excellent pointers. I normally don't do night shots and this will certainly assist me in future plans, in 350 days?!

Roel - thanks for the feedback - interesting

Don't worry - I'll have a browse of your gallery

Thanks

Tim

White Faced Heron

Reflecting on a City

Apart from the reflections, I liked the different little aspects of a city and some interesting juxtapositions in this photo.

Pete

Saw Tooth

Stucco. Raking, late afternoon light. Lots of texture.

Rich

Mystery Building

We have a couple of surviving outbuildings on the farm that we are unsure about, and this one is the most confusing. Two historical architects have been unable to ascertain what it was. My mother and her siblings referred to it as the playhouse because when she was a small child (about 1930) my grandfather turned it over to the children. But it was built in 1908 as an extension of the original house, connected to the master bedroom by a 10 ft long underground brick vaulted tunnel. So it must have had some function for the farm or house. It is one 12x12 room, with 4 windows, originally just shutters, one door, no chimney, and a brick shelf on all 3 sides about 3 ft high.

Abstract Distractions 3 - Rust Conquers all (the final chapter)

My final set of abstract photos - for now at least. A person can really go crazy looking into the details of a rusty surface.

Thank you Chris.

Oh well, I suppose the lesson you learned after that experience is - always do your research on their rules when visiting museums, art galleries, theatres and the like, especially if wanting to take photographs.

There is plenty of information on the www indicating photography is not allowed at the museum.

A quick Google found the answer to - is photography allowed at the ChiChu museum?

Sounds simple doesn't it? I don't usually google that question for places I intend visiting. Do you? I rely on adequate information at the time of booking. Naoshima as a destination is considerably more complicated than this. It has many different galleries spread around the island. Chichu is only one of these. You need to try to unravel the transport issues of moving around the island and the weird opening/closing/irregular opening and closing plus limited numbers admittance times to exhibits within a venue plus the issues of trying to plan a schedule where some bookings can only be done online for set time slots and others require cash at the door --to get a handle on the issue. Sometimes you find, too late, that different galleries here have different policies on photography, sometimes within the same venue. It's a mess.
There are no shortage of complaints online about the problems of visiting Naoshima galleries. Happily for those coming in the near future, the booking system is said to be changing beginning October 2025. Also, happily, some galleries are now taking payment by card rather than cash but you can't rely on that.
Additionally, when you research the various galleries to get info on them, you come across photos that look interesting. With hindsight, on closer inspection, they have been taken illegally but you aren't likely to realize that until you are at the door.

I find it simple enough to do.

Yes, especially when travelling overseas and especially when in China. It doesn't take much to attract the attention of Chinese security or police for the wrong reasons.

I travel overseas a lot and I shoot photos overseas a lot. I know the ropes. Naoshima has been a different proposition. As I said, planning involves dealing with a jungle of opening times, travel complexities and variations between and within galleries. There are good reasons the system is being changed from the beginning of next month.

Hai. And a PS. I'm on the island. I had the official paper guides at hand. Dan, you clearly have no grasp of Naoshima. The place is covered in galleries of different types and opening hours. Planning a day is a complex operation made even more so by the peculiar local transport arrangements that mix official and hotel bus services. No, I'm not going to specifically Google for each gallery.
Japan ain't China. And incidentally, in China, you don't just Google for information. There are reasons why you need a VPN there.

Great series with very graceful bird as a main subject. This is my fave for some reason. The shape, the shadows and the angle - they all contribute to very appealing image of bif.

Now, here is cornucopia of photo elements which, incredibly do play together after all.
They certainly demonstrate how these somewhat different items create strange, but cohesive image of city life.

Very intriguing images, but so good to look at. They are like abstract paintings. One constantly discovers new things, shapes, lines, colours etc. I see crusted earth from above, maybe. Imagination plays tricks...

First of all, I like b&w treatment and secondly the interesting assembly of various shapes and intricate lines and shadows which all lead us to discover more and more, longer we look. Cool.

I would guess only, but it does resemble some kind of storage or utility structure.
It's well built and it sits on solid stone foundation which suggests being of somewhat permanent nature.
Nevertheless, tin roof, stone base and wood siding and the fact it's surrounded by trees create great interest by it's simplicity and functionality, whatever it may be.