{"id":373,"date":"2014-11-01T17:00:03","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T21:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psnp.lightshedder.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2014-11-01T17:00:03","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T21:00:03","slug":"fear-not-the-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/?p=373","title":{"rendered":"Fear not the darkness…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yellow=rumped<\/a>
Yellow=rumped Warbler, Cape May NJ, ISO 1600.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you read the reviews of Point and Shoot cameras, especially the superzooms we favor for bird, wildlife, and nature photography, you are sure to come across comments about their less than stellar low light performance. No digital sensor camera does as well at high ISOs as it does at low ISOs. Digital sensors love light, and the more light, within reason, the better the image quality and the image detail you can expect. And the smaller the sensor, the common wisdom goes, the worse the high ISO, low light, performance you can expect. The tiny senors in the P&S Superzooms can not be expected to equal the performance of APS-C or full frame sensors.<\/p>\n

\"Full<\/a>
Full overcast\u00a0vs full sun: ISO 1600 ves 160<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the other hand, you will notice that with each new generation of digital sensors, the maximum ISO ratings increase. Full frame cameras will let you set ISO to 5 digits these days…totally unheard of, undrempt of even, ratings back in the days of film. Remember, ISO 800 color slide film (ASA 800 in those days) was revolutionary, and only to be used in emergencies, since its performance…with highly visible grain, limited contrast range, and muted colors…left a lot to be desired. Those were the days when Kodachrome 25 was still the standard for published photos.<\/p>\n

Even today’s P&S cameras will reach 3200-6400 ISO, though to listen to the reviewers, anything over ISO 400 on some, and certainly ISO 800 on most, is simply unusable. Same issue: visible noise (the digital equivalent of grain), limited contrast range, and desaturated colors. However, each new generation of P&S cameras also has improved noise reduction built into the jpeg processing engines. Yet the common advice is still to turn it off if you can…or to shoot in RAW (again if you can)…and do any noise reduction in software after the fact. The Image Quality issues (watercolor effects and detail smearing) that are often claimed for P&S superzooms are often attributed to “overly\u00a0aggressive noise reduction.”<\/p>\n

Still, if you shoot wildlife…especially active birds…in anything but full sunlight, you sometimes find yourself making the hard choice between higher ISOs and slower shutter speeds. Nothing will destroy image detail quicker than camera or subject motion, so you pretty much have to keep the shutter speed up, and let the ISO got where it needs to. \u00a0I do not like to shoot birds and wildlife at anything under 1\/500th of a second, even with today’s excellent optical image stabilization. Even if the camera does not move, the critter is likely too. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

On my latest photo trip to Cape May, New Jersey, for the Autumn Bird Festival, the days ranged from rain and overcast to full sun. If I wanted to shoot birds it was necessary to let the camera do its ISO thing, using the full range available to me. The first two days I still had not figured out how to set the camera so that it was not limited to ISO 1600 in Auto ISO, so that limited me even more. I did eventually figure out how to let the IsO ride all the way up to 3200.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the results, and my efforts around home over the past weeks and since returning from Cape May, I have come to a pretty startling conclusion. At least with the superzoom I am using (Sony HX400V), the high ISO results were not all that bad…in fact…they were very good…especially when you consider that I could not have gotten the images any other way. When choosing between some kind of pretty good okay image and no image at all…well, that is an easy choice for me. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The first thing I learned is that there is a lot<\/em> of detail in underexposed images. While the camera was limiting me to ISO 1600, many of my bird and wildlife shots were seriously underexposed…by several stops. Yet, when taken into Lighroom, I was able to bring them up to quite acceptable levels and produce images that were satisfying, if not spectacular…and you might even consider them spectacular if you take into account\u00a0the conditions they were taken under.<\/p>\n

Consider this Red Squirrel from Laudholm Farm…taken before I left for Cape May. It was so dark in the under the apple trees and in the\u00a0brush that I pushed the shutter speed all the way down to 1\/160th at ISO 1600, stretching both the Image Stabilization of the camera, and the good will of the squirrel to the max…and the image was still several stops underexposed.<\/p>\n

\"underexposed<\/a>
underexposed at 1\/160th @ ISO 1600, processed in Lightroom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As you see, while not a great image, it is hard to tell the processed result was ever that underexposed. Color is pretty good. Detail is satisfying. Both noise and digital artifacts are visible in the finished result, but only if you view the image at full resolution. At normal screen sizes it looks pretty good okay! And…of course…I could not have done any better with any camera I could have been carrying…a full frame DSLR would have wanted even more light…pushing the ISO higher and the shutter speed lower…and no lens I could have hand-held…no…no lens I could have used even on a tripod…would have equaled the 1200mm reach of the Sony HX400V. I would have had to crop heavily to achieve this image scale. Given that, I am convinced that this image is better than I would have gotten with any other<\/em> camera. You want more proof…<\/p>\n

\"Deer<\/a>
Deer at 1600 ISO. Well underexposed and brought up in Lightroom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Common<\/a>
Common Yellow-throat, again underexposed at ISO 1600.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Again, not great shots, but satisfying, considering any reasonable alternative. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

When I did figure out how to set Auto ISO for the full 3200 range on the HX400V, I was even more surprised by the results! The images, of course, required much less lightening in post-process, and maintained good color saturation, satisfying detail, and very few visible artifacts in the backgrounds (a problem area for any high ISO shot). And this is straight from the camera, with only my standard one click preset Lightroom processing. I did not, at first, even apply any extra noise reduction in Lightroom…though I did find that some slight Luminance NR, with detail emphasis, did produce an even more satisfying result.<\/p>\n

\"Squirrel <\/a>
Squirrel ISO 3200 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"White-throated <\/a>
White-throated Sparrow 3200 <\/div> <\/div>
\"Squirrel <\/a>
Squirrel ISO 3200 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Golden-crowned <\/a>
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2000 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ruby-crowned <\/a>
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2000 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

It is even possible to crop an ISO 3200 image from the Sony HX400V and get acceptable results…pretty good okay results! This chipper is proof enough for me. In-camera Noise Reduction set to standard. Sharpening to -1. Saturation to +1. My standard one click processing in Lightroom with some added NR.<\/p>\n

\"ISO<\/a>
ISO 3200. Cropped.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"ISO<\/a>
ISO 3200. Cropped.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So folks, here is my conclusion. Unless you are looking for magazine quality publication images…if, in other words, your main interest is sharing on the web and the occasional print for the wall or for a gift…you have no reason, with the latest\u00a0crop of\u00a0P&S superzooms, to fear the dark. Go boldly. Set your ISO high and bring back satisfying images of the birds and wildlife you encounter in less than ideal light…images you would be very unlikely to get with any other camera.<\/p>\n

Do not fear the dark…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you read the reviews of Point and Shoot cameras, especially the superzooms we favor for bird, wildlife, and nature photography, you are sure to come across comments about their less than stellar low light performance. No digital sensor camera does as well at high ISOs as it does at low ISOs. Digital sensors love … Continue reading Fear not the darkness…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[15,7,12,3,6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p522q5-61","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/psnp_\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}