Duing the weekends of Sept 26-Oct 26 - The iconic 611 Steam engine, pulling cars will be running from Goshen to Staunton. Does anyone have an idea of a good location where you can have access to take pictures as the train passes through the Valley? I'm thinking a landscape view rather than close ups along the track. Stan
https://www.virginiascenicrailway.com/rides/shenandoah-valley-limited/
Hi all - Here's another photo from the rodeo ... again, please understand I felt completely out of my depth. I had looked up the ideal shutter speed for bull riding at rodeos and the recommendation was 1/1000 and F/4.... which even with an ISO of 3200 led to very dark photos. But by increasing the exposure in post-processing I was able to actually see that I had some interesting shots. Here's one I worked with a bit, and I like it ... but I know it's super grainy, and I'd love to use that to make it look more like a painting, perhaps pointilist ...but really don't know how to accomplish that ... or whether these photos are just not worth doing much with. Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Wow! Exciting scene, Tanya!
Yes, very "noisy," due to two things: a dark scene requiring a fairly high ISO, and then having to increase the exposure after the fact.
Depending on your camera's capabilities, it likely would have been better, having used the Manual exposure mode to set the shutter speed and the aperture, to set the ISO on auto. The camera then would have selected a higher ISO to get a good exposure--one you wouldn't have had to increase when editing--and that may have resulted in less noise.
I'd run this through an AI-based noise-reduction and sharpening program, such as Topaz Photo AI, to salvage what you can, and then you can look for an artistic filter in Photoshop or other program that gives you something you like.
If you need further advice, just let me know!
Yes, Gerry is spot on with respect to his approach to get a reasonable exposure using manual settings with Auto ISO. Most of the more recent cameras, both SLR and mirrorless, do a pretty good job of reducing noise at high ISO, even at values of 16000 plus. Personally, I use this approach a lot in many different lighting conditions, mostly because I can no longer handhold a shot at shutter speeds less than 1/125 of a sec. At really high ISO values, Topaz will do a good job of reducing the noise, and sharpening the resulting image. Because I like to use spot metering, I can set the spot on what looks like the equivalent of middle gray in the tonal scale, lock in the exposure with the shutter button half way down, then recompose and make the exposure without releasing the shutter button. The only thing that will mess this up is when the dynamic range of the scene exceeds that of the camera - not uncommon - and if the highlights are blown out, you won't be able to recover them. This is just a long winded way of agreeing with Gerry's solution.