The frustrations and joys of a 5DmkIII in the same picture

[K]

I don't know if this has been coined yet, but the action of doing a severe post-processing exposure adjustment using a Sony sensor I will refer to as "Exmored" or "Exmoring"

Example:

"Whoa dude, I totally underexposed that photo because I was taught that you're a newb if you don't shoot on manual 100% of the time and I don't know what I'm doing - but I exmored it and I think its usable now. Thank goodness for RAW files too"

"That photo looks dull and washed out, it must have been exmored"

"I no longer need to worry about exposure, I can exmor the photo later. ISO 100, set it and forget it"

"Darn it, I was off on that shot bigtime - I tried exmoring it, but I wasn't at ISO 100, so it actually looks worse than Canon - and Canon sensors suck!"

 

[krisbell]

I don't know if this has been coined yet, but the action of doing a severe post-processing exposure adjustment using a Sony sensor I will refer to as "Exmored" or "Exmoring"

Example:

"Whoa dude, I totally underexposed that photo because I was taught that you're a newb if you don't shoot on manual 100% of the time and I don't know what I'm doing - but I exmored it and I think its usable now. Thank goodness for RAW files too"

"That photo looks dull and washed out, it must have been exmored"

"I no longer need to worry about exposure, I can exmor the photo later. ISO 100, set it and forget it"

"Darn it, I was off on that shot bigtime - I tried exmoring it, but I wasn't at ISO 100, so it actually looks worse than Canon - and Canon sensors suck!"

Hi K, its getting to the end of a long day here in the UK so I'm afraid your post has gone completely over my head so I'm not sure if you are mocking me or not!! But just in case...my thread wasn't about Sony, and I am not talking about huge changes in post.

 

[wsheldon]

I don't know if this has been coined yet, but the action of doing a severe post-processing exposure adjustment using a Sony sensor I will refer to as "Exmored" or "Exmoring"

Example:

"Whoa dude, I totally underexposed that photo because I was taught that you're a newb if you don't shoot on manual 100% of the time and I don't know what I'm doing - but I exmored it and I think its usable now. Thank goodness for RAW files too"

"That photo looks dull and washed out, it must have been exmored"

"I no longer need to worry about exposure, I can exmor the photo later. ISO 100, set it and forget it"

"Darn it, I was off on that shot bigtime - I tried exmoring it, but I wasn't at ISO 100, so it actually looks worse than Canon - and Canon sensors suck!"

Nice!

 

[K]

I don't know if this has been coined yet, but the action of doing a severe post-processing exposure adjustment using a Sony sensor I will refer to as "Exmored" or "Exmoring"

Example:

"Whoa dude, I totally underexposed that photo because I was taught that you're a newb if you don't shoot on manual 100% of the time and I don't know what I'm doing - but I exmored it and I think its usable now. Thank goodness for RAW files too"

"That photo looks dull and washed out, it must have been exmored"

"I no longer need to worry about exposure, I can exmor the photo later. ISO 100, set it and forget it"

"Darn it, I was off on that shot bigtime - I tried exmoring it, but I wasn't at ISO 100, so it actually looks worse than Canon - and Canon sensors suck!"

Hi K, its getting to the end of a long day here in the UK so I'm afraid your post has gone completely over my head so I'm not sure if you are mocking me or not!! But just in case...my thread wasn't about Sony, and I am not talking about huge changes in post.

krisbell,

Not directed to you in the slightest!

I'm mocking those people who fanatically emphasize how great Nikon cameras with Sony sensors are for being able to crank up the exposure 4-5 stops in post production. This is because of the link that was posted in this thread. The webpage had a person showing off how they took a completely dark photo and brought up the exposure because they can do that thanks to Nikon.

That is all.

Sorry, didn't mean to rant inside your thread.

 

[neuroanatomist]

I don't know if this has been coined yet, but the action of doing a severe post-processing exposure adjustment using a Sony sensor I will refer to as "Exmored" or "Exmoring"

The next question is, who performs such adjustments and what term would you coin for them? E x m o r _ _ s, perhaps? :-X

 

[agierke]

@ krisbell

This may be a silly question, but are you processing these images in ACR to 16 bit files before applying denoising filters in PS? I have experienced horrendous posterization doing such adjustments in 8bit that are enormously improved when staying in 16bit.

Just curious

 

[cayenne]

Thanks for your comment scyrene, though my mention of 'horrific' was in relation to pushing the shadows to any degree in post.

IMHO, for what was up until very recently Canon's highest resolution pro camera, at base ISO I find the level of noise and banding to be very poor. I wouldnt be surprised if this image (content aside) would get turned down from high quality stock sites due to excessive noise/artefacts.

I think I read that for the Canon 5D3...the "base" ISO is actually 160 and multiples thereof....

You might try that and see if it improves for you?

HTH,

cayenne

 

[bdunbar79]

Base ISO on the 5D Mark III is not 160.

 

[K]

I don't know if this has been coined yet, but the action of doing a severe post-processing exposure adjustment using a Sony sensor I will refer to as "Exmored" or "Exmoring"

The next question is, who performs such adjustments and what term would you coin for them? E x m o r _ _ s, perhaps? :-X

8)


They are so proud of this. Nikon should ship their cameras with a sticker that can be put on their cameras just like Intel has a sticker you can put on a PC build 'EXMOR Inside' ...this will help ensure that Nikonians don't accidentally buy a Nikon using a Toshiba sensor and inadvertently make the same claims on the web appearing foolish.

Adobe should rename the exposure slider in Lightroom and Camera Raw to 'EXMOR Enhancement' ...so users do not get confused with real photographic lingo.

Nikon should eliminate ISO settings over 400. Their cameras should instead shoot 100-200, and their firmware will then correct for exposure and "exmor" it in camera. Saving a post-production step, and allows hundreds of thousands of wannabe photographers out there to keep shooting manual mode without actually learning how to shoot manual mode.

I mean after all, shooting in P mode is for amateurs, but correcting images for 2-5 stops of EV is totally pro.


;D

 

[Ryan_]

Sometimes, especially on long exposures (~30seconds) especially when there is clouds and I'm using a ND filter, I get bad posterization in the clouds. And when I googled this I found one solution was to actually add grain back into the image to help reduce and maybe eliminate the posterization. Something about there not being enough data in that part of the image, so you add some back in with the grain and it helps.

I know this isn't exactly what you're asking about. But it seems to fit in somehow... There may not be enough data in that part of the file, maybe because of the type of light used as someone mentioned earlier. So you'll get the banding. So you may actually want to try adding a bit of artificial grain in those areas and see if it helps. Although it seems you don't want any grain to begin with, so its a bit of a catch 22 here. Just speculating

I do see that type of banding/posterization/whatever it is that you posted (easier to see when you actually click on it) in my own photos sometimes and it certainly frustrates me. It doesn't seem to be a noise/DR issue either just some weird color splotchiness or something. Usually happens when I push a file too hard but also sometimes when I hardly push it at all. It is definitely a frustrating thing, but not a make or break thing (for me anyways)

 

[GmwDarkroom]

Thanks Gmw - this makes perfect sense and is something that until today had never crossed my mind. I think it explains much of what I am seeing. Is there anything I can do in order to 'fix' this going forward - would it help if I used blue gels on the flash or added some blue info/noise in post for example?

Unfortunately, that's where we step into technique and post-processing. I'm pretty much novice in that regard, so I can't help you. I just understand the science.

 

[krisbell]

No probs K, thanks for clarifying.

Agierke - thanks for the suggestion but I am already in 16bit mode.

Ryan_ - yes indeed that is a technique I use for particularly difficult files. In this instance, because the banding is way more unsightly than plain noise, I tend to overdo the noise reduction and then add back in some nice, random and even noise to reduce the posterisation and banding. It isnt an ideal solution but it does help a little.

 

[scyrene]

But I have had to deal with noisy backgrounds with smooth gradients a fair bit, as many of my bird shots are at high ISO. My technique (using Lightroom) - if you want to eliminate it as much as possible - is to use a brush tool to paint the out of focus areas - use denoise *and* lower the clarity/sharpness, so it smooths out any posterisation. It takes longer, but I'd only be doing this for shots I wanted to print or show off large. Reducing to web viewing size reduces the noise massively, of course.

That is something I often do in my images but for images like this it actually makes posterisation worse!! And its not possible to tell from the crops I have provided but the image actually was ETTR. The final image is brought back down by almost half a stop. I think it mostly boils down to the earlier suggestion about poor spectrum of my flashes that has created the issue in this specific picture. Thanks once again for the comments.

Fair enough. We've both learned something - I didn't know that about lighting either.

 

[jarrodeu]

Since we are discussing adding Photoshop features for Sony sensor users, maybe they can add a Canon setting to reduce dynamic range and add shadow banding.

Jarrod