Editing high dynamic range images in PhotoLab 5

It’s not a bad starting point. unless you do what I did this morning and forget to set the focus back to auto from manual, thus only getting the odd image sharp by chance :crazy_face: :roll_eyes:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Your D750 does accept the MC-DC2 Remote Release un dirt one of the side covers. The D850 still has the reliable(?) old 10 pin connector which accepts any one of several wired remotes.

Or, if I want to go all posh and techie, I can use the Nikon SnapBridge app on my iPhone, which also allows me to wirelessly see the through the lens as well as pressing the shutter and reviewing images on the phone. But, at the expense of rather rapid battery depletion.

That IR remote is line of sight only with limited off axis operation. I use a variation of this 2.4 Ghz remote that triggers the shutter from up to 100ft away, any axis. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NYVVLPV/ref=as_li_ss_tl?SubscriptionId=AKIAJO7E5OLQ67NVPFZA&ascsubtag=707498863-2-2068085524.1635000488&tag=shopperz_origin4-20&th=1 Simple operation and also can be set up quickly and easily. You can set delay timer, exposure time, interval time, number of shoots, repeat shooting interval time and repeat times.

A nice unit and not all that expensive.

Larry

Well, here goes, one photo from this morning. It’s not as high a dynamic range image as what I’ve been shooting lately, but close. To get the yacht where I wanted it, I ran out of time and never got the metering changed from center-weighted to spot metering, but I did all the other steps as intended. Camera was on a tripod, but out of four almost identical photos, this image appeared sharpest. I wanted to capture the four cruise ships docked in front of the Miami skyline and I needed the yacht to put a little “movement” into the photo. Metering was done on a small white cloud, and the front end of the second cruise ship from the left, but I wanted something bigger and whiter. In retrospect, the brightest part of the image is the bow of the yacht. I may have made the green trees too dark, but this is how they looked to me.

I made a virtual copy (VC1), as I wanted to see how the “control line” tool might help, but I got lost in what it might do, and I didn’t like the results in what I tried. I just ended up using the graduated filter to make the top of the image slightly darker. I wondered if any flying sensor dust might wander into the photo, but the birds never cooperated. If I would have waited, the yacht would be out of the picture frame probably.

I’m obviously getting spoiled by PhotoLab - it’s difficult for me to accept that this image was hiding inside the original image my D750 captured, which is all way over-exposed and dull.

Again, everyone reading this - please try this yourself, and post the results you come up with. I very much enjoying “seeing” things through other people’s eyes!! I especially want to understand Joanna’s take on what I did, and how…

_7509184 | 2021-10-23.nef (28.0 MB)
_7509184 | 2021-10-23.nef.dop (27.7 KB)

Question - is there any way to change the forum background color from bright white, to dark gray?

I hope NOT – this forum was meant for text, not pics.

Before moving onto your next shot Mike, which isn’t really HDR, I just wanted to show you something I just re-discovered and applied to you sunset image…

Notice how you can now almost see the circle of the sun without so much flare!

Here are the settings I changed…

That is incredible! I will try that - not sure right now how you got it to look so nice, it “feels” like looking at the sun!

Are you sure about that? I enjoy “dark mode” on many of my devices, even in the day, but it doesn’t change the forum appearance for me. I know I don’t “see” many things here correctly when they are surrounded by a huge bright white screen. Maybe it’s just me…

Simply click on any images and they get shown in a viewer page against a dark background.

You can also go to full screen and get something like this…

Very simple and easy - thanks!!! :sunglasses:

Yes, these are birds of course. See attached screenshot as example. Sensor specs may not be visible after upload due to compression so look carefully in DXO.
I never use sensor cleaning, it mostly manages only to bring dust on different position than before :wink:

Hey Mike, you’re getting good at this!

Once again as near perfect an exposure as I would expect, with plenty of wiggle room for tweaking.

Here’s mine (just a tad warmer and with more detail in the island)…

And here’s the DOP with mine included…

_7509184 | 2021-10-23.nef.dop (42,7 Ko)

Thank you!!! I think I have some wonderful teachers, even when I’m slow to learn.

Also, I am very careful at getting the meter reading centered perfectly, but the reading I’m using comes from the camera, not from me. I’m appreciating the D750 so much more, now that we’re doing these things.

I like the warmer version better - it represents what I “felt” early in the morning, but the warmth was going away as the sun got higher. It certainly is more appealing.

(Not directly related, but I wanted to send the above image in an email, and I wanted to put a thick black frame around it, since people will read it on a white background.

When I selected a white frame, it appeared black on my PL4 window, but white in the exported file.
When I selected a black frame, it appeared white on my PL4 window, but black in the exported file.

If you test this, and if you agree, maybe you can please pass this on to the appropriate people?

Here is my .dop file:
_7509184 | 2021-10-23.nef.dop (43.0 KB)
On my screen, it shows a white border, but when I export it it works correctly, with a black border.

We’re just off out for our weekly pizza.

New version using Control Line and negatives to reduce the glare on some of the buildings…

New DOP with an extra version for this last change…

_7509184 | 2021-10-23.nef.dop (58,3 Ko)

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Hmm, I did notice the glare while reviewing the image at 100%, but had no idea of how to correct it. Is there a tutorial available on how to use control line to do what you’ve done?

Also, after reading about Spotlight Metering Mode, I found this write-up for the D750:
https://imaging.nikon.com/support/digitutor/d750/functions/metering.html

I went to turn it on for my next attempt, but the asterisk was already there - meaning while I thought I was in regular spot metering, I was actually in the spotlight mode. Oops… At the time, I didn’t know to look for the aterisk. Me bad. I should have seen it, and wondered what it did, but at the time I thought there were only the three basic modes.

Regardless, it’s now turned on. For a fair test, I will shoot this way, without using the +1.7 exposure. If it’s obvious the 1.7 overexposure is necessary, I’ll turn that on too for the next time. Since we’re mostly concerned with the area near the sun, I think I’ll put the 200mm lens back on, and zoom in. If there’s a decent sunset tonight, I’ll go for it. It’s now 4pm EST DST, so my opportunity will be in about 2 1/2 hours from now.

Not as I’ve done it, no. Just general use. We are out shooting surfers tomorrow morning, if the rain holds off. I will try to put together a step by step guide sometime over the weekend.

Oops indeed! Ah well, another lesson learnt :wink:

I wasn’t thinking of doing both at the same time but I guess it will be interesting to see what happens.

Hmmm. Don’t forget one of the aims is not just to minimise flare on the sun but also to get shadow detail at the same time.

Just out of interest, here’s a shot from this afternoon, taken with my new toy at 25,600 ISO, first without and then with DeepPRIME

OK. I’m off to bed. Have a fun time :sleeping_bed: :teddy_bear:

Two thoughts - the first is that even without Deep Prime, the image is still nice, and that you used 25 thousand ISO is something long ago I never, ever could have imagined!!!

My second thought is that with Deep Prime, it’s not even obvious you used a high ISO, let alone 25 thousand. Gack!!! You could probably get a nice photo of a black cat at midnight with this camera. Who needs light? Very impressive, to say the least. I don’t expect you’re going to go around shooting with that high an ISO, but it’s wonderful to know that you can, should you ever need to.

One more hour, and I’m off to sleep too.

You jest, but one of my favourite features of my Pentax KP is the menu that lets me tell it which settings to remember when I turn it off. Not all settings are available but many are (more than on the K-5 I had before it) and it’s allll about which settings I tell it NOT to remember.

In the past the one that made me hate myself the most was drive mode. Something would happen in front of me and I’d swing the camera to action, wait for the perfect moment, click the shutter and… two seconds of darkness as the timer beeps away at me and I have no chance of completing the shot.

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pfff, so i am not the only one in this… f*cking up by not set everything to default after a specialised shot and forget about it just when time is not your friend…
Or take a shot in a church and instead of a minor “click” (no miror) it goes drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, everyone looks at you like: hmmm bursting for 1 statue? lame guy doesn’t know how to expose right…

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Did you have vibration reduction switched on on the lens? If so, this would be the cause. I has to be turned off for tripod use.

Oh no, you are definitely not the only one to do this kind of thing.

It has even been known to happen to me when shooting LF or MF film.

With LF, you are meant to open the shutter to focus and compose, then close the shutter, insert the dark slide, withdraw the sheath, take the exposure, replace the sheath and take out the dark slide.

Do you realise how many combinations there are of not getting that in the right order? Which means I either get a totally black sheet of film, because it never got exposed, or a totally clear sheet of film, where it got exposed from the moment you withdrew the dark slide to when you put it back in again :crazy_face:

The first is not so bad because, with LF, the subject rarely moves and you can reshoot; but with the second, you can just wave goodbye to €5 as you go to cock the shutter only to realise it is still open :roll_eyes:

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Hi Mike,

see my version. I started with my usual preset for my D810, reduced the Highlights in Selevtive Tone tool by 35, increased the light-blue HSL channel by 70 (forget about the others), increasing finecontrast and set Clearview to 20. Not to forget correcting the Horizon by -.5 (sorry, I am picky about such things). See .dop for more details. It can be a bit kitschy for some but is meant only for what is possible with just some clicks.

But I see technical flaws in the shot itself: the lens (Nikkor 2.8/80-200 D ED) is one of the best in its class and the picture should be tack.sarp - but is not. This may be due to camera-shake or diffraction (F16 at 1/30 at 86mm) or both. You would have got far better results with say F8 at 1/125. Hyperfocal distammce is 31m then and all would have been sharp from 15m to infinity. Try it out if you like and use a tripod at best.

_7509184 _ 2021-10-23.nef.dop (11,7 KB)