Oh my gosh!!! All that beauty was hiding in plain sight, and you brought it out!!! I downloaded your .dop file, and am looking at my new #2 virtual copy, and it’s hard to believe this is the same photo!
I see what you did to the tone curve, and when I click “Compare” I can see that you applied the optics information. You turned on Chromatic Aberration - is that what activated everything? You also turned on Lens Sharpness and Distortion, which are set to “Auto”. I fell asleep last night wanting more “punch”, and you’ve added punch, on steroids! Your version just jumps off the screen at me!
I doubt if I will ever reach your level, but my goal now is to get closer!
If you are going from f/2.8 to f/8, that’s 3 stops down.
If you go from 500 ISO to 2000 ISO, that’s 2 stops up (don’t be afraid of high ISO with DeepPRIME; I regularly use 10,000 for concert photography)
Take off the -1 stop exposure compensation you used and you end up with 1/5 sec, just like this shot.
If you didn’t mind the water being smoother and possible movement on any boats, you could always use a polarising filter, which will intensify colours and possibly remove some of the haloing around point light sources. But you will need to allow for another 1½ - 2 stops.
If the module wasn’t loaded, you would see this on the thumbnail…
If they are part of your default preset for RAW images (they should be), then there’s nothing else you need to do to have them there automatically. If not, go to preferences and make your default RAW preset “2 - Optical Corrections only”.
If that preset wasn’t your default, simply double click on it in the preset panel…
Unless a lens is scrupulously clean, it is virtually impossible to get rid of some “bleed” from point light sources, which is why I suggested a polarising filter. It might help but it isn’t something I’ve actually tested yet.
Do you have a tripod and cable release? It can help more than trying to hold the camera against a rail, where even pressing the shutter can be enough to cause blur.
Nope, it was the combination of those three plus Vignetting, all of which are in the Optical Corrections only preset. But I did have to up the Chromatic Aberration settings to full tilt with Lateral and Purple both switched on. Your lens behaves very much like an old Nikon 28-200 zoom that I used to have and it needed the same “help”.
Most of the punch was from simply straightening out the tone curve, plus carefully applied fine contrast.
Hey, why not. I’ve only been using PL for three versions. And I’m still learning almost every time I use it. Also, helping other people is a great way of finding the stuff out to help them.
I am pretty certain I did this some time ago, selecting 2 - Optical Corrections only… but looking at my DxO PL4 screen on my display, no place doe it confirm what preset is in use. I selected it again, and clicked on it. Now it is highlighted with a white background, and the lettering is in black. If I quit PL4 and re-start, let’s see if it looks the same…
Nope. So do I need to do this every time, or is there a way for me to confirm what Preset is actually in use? If necessary, I’ll get in the habit of clicking on it every time I start PL4.
Yikes again, it also un-did your changes. I need to download your .dop file again… one minute…
Hmm, I need to delete my #2 virtual copy, leaving only the Master and my own virtual copy. Now download your .dop file again. Finally, everything is back to normal.
That was foolish. So, if I opened my computer again six months from now, and opened an image, how would I know what Preset was in use for that image? Or can’t it be done.
Hmm, catching up with you is like catching up with Einstein, and while it’s not possible, for me, I can keep getting better. I’m happy to read that your helping me is helping you too! (…and I bet a lot of others are following along with these discussions, learning while doing so. Maybe more of them will jump in to say hello!)
Ok, stop reading / writing now and get you camera ready for tonight, if you want to take pics.
Get out of the P(rogram mode) and set it to Manual (or Aperture mode), so that you can choose f8.
[ Not arguing with you, but you better up the ISO to avoid slow shutter speed – except when your intention is to ‘calm’ the sea → and then you have to take care for the mirror slap → more settings … ]
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m-photo
( Marc (macOS Sonoma on MBP16" Intel))
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I watched it yesterday and… I guess you are just one step away from this on this thread
Lunch is finished, email is finished, and I will be ready if the weather cooperates. My tripod is set up, memory card formatted, and front and rear of the lens are clean and shiny. For a starter, ISO is set to 2500, camera to (M)anual mode, Aperture to f/8, and shutter - still to be determined. I will likely shoot in “bracketing”, same settings as yesterday. Cable release - good question. I needed to find out how to attach one to my D750, and it’s not going to happen: https://kylefalconer.com/blog/2016/4/26/quirks-of-the-nikon-d750
Why would such a well known company as Nikon deliberately omit a way to use a cable release?
Next time I’ll use my Df which uses a normal cable release like what’s been available for maybe 100 years now. But for fewer megapixels, which probably doesn’t matter, I’d be using the Df.
Show time is a little after 7pm. Dinner time is 6pm, like in 10 minutes!
If you can, set the exposure compensation to + 1⅔ and spot meter the brightest part of the subject. This will ensure that you will not blow highlights and you will be able to recover shadows in PL.
Then progressively add ⅓ stop of shutter opening time every so many minutes as the light fades.
Once this is installed, you can even set this as your default instead of the DxO version, or you can use it after the fact without fear of losing previous edits.
I’m saying that these lights don’t bother me. The image lives by the colour of the sky and the clouds against the skyline. Better rendering of the light sources in the foreground will not improve the impression of the sky and clouds.
Tonight was useful as a dry-run, but that beautiful colored sky, and all those clouds that you noted never happened. Jupiter was still there and I took several shots, each one bracketed. I’ll try Joanna’s way next time. For a great photo, without the clouds and sky, tonight was a waste - but I’ll pick one of the images and upload it anyway,
I don’t think I’ll do that any more - If anything, I’ll click the Preset I want “DxO Optical Corrections Only” before I open any image, and try to get in the habit of doing that.
For today, I tried to guess at the right exposure from a few test shots, then set the bracketing to take 5 shots at a time. I slowed down the shutter speed as it started to get darker.
I also took two quick shots with my Df, to get a feel for how it works with a shot like this.
I’m not too excited about even more electronic gadgets - one more reason to use the Df, that accepts the standard cable releases I already have. Thanks for finding this though - I might change my mind, if I had a good reason.
Unfortunately, you are right. I cut down all the photos I took today to only five, and only one of them seemed suitable. I tried to copy so much of what Joanna suggested, and it almost seems like it works, but the water is boring, the sky is boring, and there never was much color in the sky. My 24mm Nikkor lens seems to be much better at f/8, and there was just the tiniest bit of noise in the sky, which Deep Prime will probably fix. I made the image just the tiniest bit warmer, as if the sky was lighting up the buildings with more of the orange color. One small boat came along with a blue light on the front, and I made sure I got that in the photo - it’s the only thing that’s “live”.
I was going to lighten up the building at the right, but decided not to. I toned down the very brightly lit terminal in the background, and this time one can even see inside it. Oh, and I just know that everyone who sees this is going to tell me to clean my sensor - and speaking of that, it isn’t as distorted as it was yesterday, and the lights that bothered me yesterday seem toned down a little.
If I had clouds in the sky, they would be reflecting light down to light up the small boats. Maybe next time. As a learning experience this has been SO helpful. So many great people pushing me in better directions!
(In my PhotoLab4 window, the image looks like what I wanted to do, but in this forum, surrounded by all the white space, the image looks way too dark. Not sure what to do about this, if anything…)
If possible, I would like to continue using my Df whenever possible. It has 16 megapixels in the sensor, not 24, but I have enjoyed using it so much more. It is lighter, has more controls available, can accept almost any lens Nikon has made sine the very beginning, including non-AI lenses, and the designer at Nikon built a camera that HE would want, not something for the mass market.
While setting up my D750 for the repeat shot yesterday, I saw something interesting happening, grabbed my Df, stuck my 80-200 on it, and got the following. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had left it in JPG mode, not raw, as I was showing my brother how to use his Df, and he can’t spell “raw”. I should know better - I try to always put my cameras back to my default settings when I finish with them. Anyway, here’s what PL4 did for my image with some minor changes and a little cropping that I didn’t have time to do in the camera:
(Viewed at 100%, it’s not going to be as large as images from the D750, but Nikon put their best sensor at that time, from the D4, into this camera, along with a lot of love. I look at the images at 100% and I haven’t yet been disappointed - and this was a grab shot, no tripod. Where Nikon messed up, is they put in the focusing mechanism from the D610, not their best, so it has a limitation for fast focusing or focusing in minimal light.)
Anyway, back to reality - I intended to mostly use my Df, not my D750, from now on. If I re-take my sunset photo tonight, I plan to use the Df, unless one of you feels I should continue with the 750?
That extra stop-and-a-half can come in really useful.
Not strictly true unless you are counting the twiddling knobs type controls
As can, to the best of my knowledge, the D750
Especially from the dynamic range POV, the D750 is the better camera for this type of shot and will give you more chance of avoiding over-exposed points of light whilst still giving you the ability to recover shadow detail.
Don’t forget that the more Mpx, the more you can crop if you can’t get close enough to a subject.
Addenda
The Df is diffraction limited from f/8, whilst the D750 can go down to f/10 before diffraction becomes a factor. This affects how point light sources, amongst other things, “spread”.
On the back of the Df, there are separate controls for AEL/AFL and AF-ON - which I use all the time. To be able to focus with a rear button on the D750, I need to repurpose the AEL/AFL button so it tells the camera to focus. I no longer focus by pressing the shutter release half way - I only focus with the rear button, so my focus doesn’t change between shots.
No, using non-AI lenses can break the D750. The Df has a tab that you can move out of the way, so my ancient Nikon lenses, some of which were very useful to me, like my tilt/shift lens, will fit fine on the Df.
All this is dangerous thinking for me. If it is important, maybe I should go buy a Nikon D5, or D6, or whatever they are up to now? Check this:
Agreed with both of those points - which is why I used my D750, although my reasoning was flawed. What you write is much more useful than what I was thinking. The D750 isn’t going anywhere, as I have it set up perfectly for what I (used to) do.
You made me curious as to what my Leica M10 can do regarding dynamic range:
Why would you do that when the D750 fives you 14.something stops range as opposed the just over 12 on the D5? The only “advantage” to the D5 on this graph is the insanely high ISO, but with very little dynamic range when you get there. It’s primarily designed for sports photography.
