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What is ISO, Dual ISO, ISO invariance and where does all the noise come from?

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ISO used to be fairly simple. In the film days, it was called ASA and was a measure of the sensitivity of that film to light. As we transitioned to digital and the years progressed, things have gotten a little more complex. In this video, the Syrp Lab team looks at ISO in the modern day. They take a look at features like Dual native ISO as well as discuss the issues around digital noise.

The video focuses on how ISO relates to video, as many modern ISO features are specifically designed for getting the best possible quality in your footage. But much of the information is still valid for photographers shooting still images, whether they be jpg or raw.

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Why shooting portraits at ISO 100 may not always be the best choice

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Increasing the ISO value increases the amount of noise in your images. So, you may want to shoot at the lowest ISO possible. But is it a good idea to shoot at ISO 100 whenever you can? Michael Sasser believes it isn’t always the best choice, and in this video, he gives you his reasons why. Let’s see if you agree.

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Use this simple Photoshop technique to shoot in the dark and effectively reduce noise

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Modern and high-end cameras can shoot without significant noise even at very high ISO values. But many of us still don’t own such cameras, so the ISO value where the photos are still usable is pretty limited. Koldunov Brothers share a simple Photoshop technique that will let you shoot In the dark even with a smartphone and reduce noise effectively.

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The Sony A7II and its absurd shadow recovery.

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Until today I’d known my Sony A7II could handle the shadow world, but I could never bring myself to push it. Mainly out of fear, no actually entirely from fear of losing the image. Recently I had the absolute pleasure of working at Rebecca Bathory’s place I decided to test the range once and for all.

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Which Camera is the Noisiest? This visual database compares sensor noise

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The quality of long exposures is determined mostly by the amount of noise a camera produces. The lower the noise levels, the better the exposure. This is especially true if you are shooting lots of nightscapes or night skies, where most of the photo is black.

And Brendan Davey shoots a lot of night photos, in fact he shoots enough of them that it was worth a while for him to create a database which compares the amounts of noise each camera (or camera sensor) produces.

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The Pentax K-1’s Pixel Shift challenges the dynamic range of medium format

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It’s clear that the Pentax K-1 is out to impress and if the sharpness increase with its Pixel Shift technology weren’t enough for you already, the dynamic range boost it provides will definitely do the trick.

DPReview have had the K-1 for a little while now, running it through a battery of tests, and in the current round they put the dynamic range to task, reporting that it challenges that of medium format cameras.

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How to reduce noise in an image without losing detail

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With each passing year, cameras are getting better and better at keeping digital noise to a minimum. Despite this, there are still times when you need to shoot at a high ISO and will inevitably end up with an amount of noise you aren’t pleased with.

Thankfully, this can be fixed in post production. The tradeoff though, is usually that details are lost in the image due to the smoothing of the noise.

To help show you how to reduce noise without compromising on the details of photographs, photographer Jimmy McIntyre has shared a helpful YouTube tutorial.[Read More…]

Sony A7r II Noise Comparison And Rolling Shutter Test

We’re starting to see more and more sample footage from the much anticipated Sony A7R ii, which is due to start shipping August 5th. U.K. based photographer, Jon Roberts, recently got his hands on one of the cameras and was nice enough to whip up this noise test, which compares the A7R II to it’s predecessor the A7R and, also, a Canon 5D MKiii. Roberts’ notes “that this wasn’t a very scientific test under lab circumstances…more of a rough and ready preview!”; however, it’s still a solid comparison with 100% crops.

The same goes for the rolling shutter test video Roberts has shared with us, which you’ll see farther down in this post along with an unboxing video–but, we’ll get to those in a minute.

First, take a look at the noise test. You can click the image to open a full size version in a new browser windor, or take a look at it over on Flickr.[Read More…]

DeNoising Vidoe: Neat Video vs. Denoiser II

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When it comes to noise in photos, we are pretty accustomed to using DeNoising tools. When it comes to video, there are similar options that apply that same logic to footage, rather than to a single frame.

The folks over at Film Riot took two of the more popular options, Neat Video and Denoiser II (both at about $100) for a test drive and compare the results. Ryan talks about a third plugin called Dark Energy which he says surpasses them both, but sadly, it fell of the comparison for costing $100 more.

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