S.O.S. HELP ! - DPChallenge Forums

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

11/01/2005 06:44:17 PM · #1

I'm going MAD, I tell ya, just going off the deep end... I'm glad I don't have any sharp instruments close by right now...

I've owned my own studio for 5 years. I thought I knew how to shoot, until I put a FREAK'n MkII in my hand. Now I'm totally LOST. Grrrrr All I've ever used are my "great" D60's.

In the past, I would just meter my lighting. Set WB, and go, go, go.

Now it has all changed. Thank GOD almighty, I still have my D60's. 2 of them. I plan on moving back to them, for all my work except low light shots [weddings] in particular. I don't need 80000 shot per second to do my work, as the MkII will deliver.

I shot this STINK'n shot today as one example. Camera was set to default settings, RAW, 100 ISO, 28.135 IS lens, Custom WB, 180th@5.6 or so.

DOES ANYONE, have any experience with the MkII, that might be able to shed some light as to, lets say, take a simple portrait...

I'm going MAD I tell ya ... HELP!

//www.keepsakephotography.us/misc/rawshot.jpg

deapee

Kodak V803

11/01/2005 06:46:59 PM · #2

Originally posted by pfiltz:

DOES ANYONE, have any experience with the MkII, that might be able to shed some light as to, lets say, take a simple portrait...

uhm, practicing might help some.

KaDi

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

11/01/2005 06:47:01 PM · #3

Easy there!
Calm down.
Set the MkII on the table.
Back slowly away.
I'll be over to swap you my 300D.
I'll let you know how the pics come out.
;-)
(...and welcome to DPC and the world of digital angst...)

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

11/01/2005 06:52:42 PM · #4

Thanks De... Appreciate that valuable info.

Practice.

OK, I could understand that statement, if it was my first day with a camera and lighting gear.

Regards,

mpemberton

11/01/2005 06:55:13 PM · #5

Looks like the same problem I had when I was using the 2.0.2 firmware for my 20D. No matter what I shot I would get grain like that. Make sure that the firmware is up to date. I did 2.0.3, and like magic the problem went away as well.

DrAchoo

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

11/01/2005 07:07:28 PM · #6

I think he's talking more exposure rather than any noise...

Not a Mark II user, but Canon in general. Which setting were you on otherwise? Av? M? P? Green? Is your camera controlling the light output? I'm assuming D60's are Nikon (don't know that). Canon has a funny thing about Av, the lighting is controlled differently compared to other settings and I've had similar issues when using Av.

Just an idea.

Here the link. I'm sure your lighting is more sophisticated than my 420ex flash, but it may be a victim of the same process.

Message edited by author 2005-11-01 19:11:19.

Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM

11/01/2005 07:18:34 PM · #7

I shoot in Manual mode all the time.. Studio or location. It's manual. I'm talking grain, noise, exposure, it's all a mess.

I'm on the phone with canon tech now. They're looking at the image as well.

I'm missing something. This camera cannot be that hard to operate. I've got to find out if it's firmware, camera settings, both, or something of a higher nature... ;)

Exif data:
File Name
_W1Z0035.CR2
Camera Model
Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Shooting Date/Time
11/1/2005 5:30:30 AM
Shooting Mode
Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed )
1/125
Av( Aperture Value )
5.6
Metering Mode
Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed
100
Lens
28.0 - 135.0 mm
Focal Length
80.0 mm
Image Size
3504x2336
Image Quality
RAW
Flash
Off
White Balance Mode
Custom
AF Mode
One-Shot AF
Parameters Settings
Tone Curve Standard
Sharpness 0
Contrast -1
Color Matrix
4Adobe RGB
Color Space Adobe RGB
Color saturation Standard
Color tone 0
Noise Reduction
On
File Size
5808 KB
Custom Function
C.Fn:00-1
C.Fn:01-1
C.Fn:02-1
C.Fn:04-2
C.Fn:05-0
C.Fn:06-2
C.Fn:07-0
C.Fn:08-0
C.Fn:09-0
C.Fn:10-0
C.Fn:11-0
C.Fn:12-0
C.Fn:13-1
C.Fn:14-0
C.Fn:15-0
C.Fn:16-0
C.Fn:17-0
C.Fn:18-0
C.Fn:19-0
C.Fn:20-4
C.Fn:21-1
Drive Mode
Single-frame shooting

Message edited by author 2005-11-01 19:33:15.

hgpayne

Canon EOS-5D

11/01/2005 07:41:28 PM · #8

Try using the other colorspace. This could be a factor of your RAW processor not handling the Adobe RGB correctly -- I think I read something about that once. Also try turning off the noise reduction -- see if that helps the "grain".

Originally posted by pfiltz:

Color Matrix
4Adobe RGB
Color Space Adobe RGB
Color saturation Standard
Color tone 0
Noise Reduction
On

nemesise1977

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO Macro Super for Canon

11/01/2005 07:46:21 PM · #9

Originally posted by deapee:

Originally posted by pfiltz:
DOES ANYONE, have any experience with the MkII, that might be able to shed some light as to, lets say, take a simple portrait...

uhm, practicing might help some.

I agree, I understand your experienced, but that was with a d60 this is a diffrent creature.

As for what went wrong you were at ISO 100 but what shutter speed did you use, The noise and the line pattren look like it may hve been open for a while. I would say take some pore pratice shots tinkering with the apature exposure time ect and see what diffrence it makes. I do agree it could be a problem with the firmware or just that camera.

Could you post the orginal raw and not the converted JPG so we can get the exif data and see what it looked like in raw?

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

11/01/2005 07:49:12 PM · #10

Exif is listed above. 125th@f5.6

If you want the raw file. Here is a link. Canon's getting it now.

//www.keepsakephotography.us/RAWFILE/RAWFILE.zip

dragonlady

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

11/01/2005 07:49:23 PM · #11

I believe arnit has a markII, try sending him email.

Sigma 18-250 f/3.5 - 6.3 DC OS HSM

11/01/2005 07:53:09 PM · #12

I'm hoping to hear something from Canon by tomorrow. They're DL'dn the RAW file tonight from the link I sent them.

NathanWert

Canon EOS-90D

11/01/2005 08:00:48 PM · #13

Forget swapping for the 300d. Swap for my fujifilm s5100. It's MUCH better than the 300d.

11/01/2005 08:19:54 PM · #14

don't have the MII but it's a very similar camera... let me look at this raw quick.

11/01/2005 08:28:00 PM · #15

Well there's no dount that the shot is pretty underexposed. Here's what I got with no editing besides +1.95ev and some curves to help too.

The noise is kinda strong in the dark areas, but his face doesn't look bad at all, even at 100%.

Message edited by author 2005-11-01 20:31:27.

11/01/2005 08:30:36 PM · #16

Then is it a setting within CS2?

I've only started to use it, since shooting RAW. I may have a setting not right.

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Nikon

11/01/2005 08:32:29 PM · #17

well what i did was push the exposure in software, but you should try to get more light when you're shooting. The metering is off somewhere, how did you meter?

Apple iPhone

11/01/2005 08:44:59 PM · #18

in cs2 using the raw file, I stopped down the exposure...and played with the curve a touch. then opened it into photoshop. I then played with highlights and shadows

its not the best, but it did bring his face back.. and playing with highlights and shadow would bring back the background more

fplouffe

Nikon D200

Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR DG IF-ED

11/01/2005 09:07:04 PM · #19

I am no expert at this, but Iam pretty sure I read recently that the 1D is deliberately underexposing for some obscure reason I can't remenber. Whit that said, I never even came close to a 1D so take this with a whole bunch of grain of salt.

11/01/2005 09:09:16 PM · #20

I always meter with a Sekonic hand meter in the studio.

Please note: I've always gravitated toward under exposing by a stop with my D60's. Just old habits. From what I understand, the MkII doesn't like to be under any at all.

Is this true?

I do plan on shooting with both cameras tomorrow if at all possible, with the same camera settings. I want to see the difference myself.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70 f2.8 L IS

11/01/2005 10:06:12 PM · #21

Originally posted by pfiltz:

Underexposing with any digital camera is very bad practice. You'll be giving up a ton of dynamic range, and raising noise substantially. What you want to do for best image quality is to "expose right", that is, shoot so that the histogram nearly touches the right side. If shooting RAW, you can even clip a little and not worry, you'll soon learn to judge how much. Then in RAW conversion, use a negative exposure compensation to bring things back in line. Since you're using a 1-series cam, set the histogram for RGB so you can see when individual channels are clipping.
I looked at the RAW file, and there is a LOT of noise. I know the 1DMkII can do much, much better than this.

11/01/2005 10:12:19 PM · #22

i don't think any digital camera likes to be underexposed. Almost all the information is stored to the right of the histogram, underexposing just results in lots of lost data with the benifit of not blowing highlights.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

11/01/2005 10:20:48 PM · #23

Update folks... And thanks for your input.

I think I'll try to use the histogram on the MkII a bit more. Right now, I don't even look at it.

I think the camera and my meter don't see eye to eye with regard to exposure and ISO settings.

If I error, it will be on the + side with regard to exposure. I'm going to try and shoot again tomorrow, with this little guy. Hope to post something worth posting for a change...

Way too little time, and too much to learn on RAW for me...

Best,

deapee

Kodak V803

11/01/2005 10:32:54 PM · #24

Originally posted by pfiltz:

so you're going to take my advice, which you dismissed earlier. This is why I almost refuse to try to help here anymore....................

why are you shooting raw if you're not comfortable with it? Why not trust the camera's metering system? You upgraded the technology, but you're still relying on your old meter? Learn the camera man, seriously, practice...and you're welcome for the valuable info.

Message edited by author 2005-11-01 22:34:34.