Landscape Photography – The Old Sugar Mill Grayscale

Here’s another landscape image taken early last year using an old Rebel XT and an EF 17-40mm f/4L lens. I processed the first entirely in Lightroom using the high-contrast grayscale conversion routine outlined in Scott Kelby’s Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book for Digital Photographers and finished it off in Noise Ninja.

Since I started out shooting B&W over 30 years ago, processing images like this really bring back some memories. One of the best (and most thoroughly used) reference books I’ve ever read on B&W imagery is Natural Light Photography by Ansel Adams. I got my hardcover edition of this book in 1976, the same year I bought my first SLR. Every few years I’ll sit down and reread this timeless classic. Every photographic principal and technique Ansel Adams described in this 1952 book remains true today.

The Old Sugar Mill
Copyright © 2008 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon Rebel XT tripod mounted, EF 17-40mm F/4L USM at 17mm, f/9 for 1/50th of a second at ISO 100 on SanDisk digital film. All post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 and Noise Ninja. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Landscape Photography – Texas Hill Country Grayscale

We’re a little spoiled here in Southeast Texas with over 300 days per year of sunshine. The winter months here are usually mild compared to the rest of the country but its the time of year that most of us really despise with dull gray clouds and cold, wet winds. Definitely not the best time of the year for landscape or wildlife photography.

So we sit at our computers and look through last year’s images trying to find one or two to post that fit our current (gray) mood. For me this usually means converting these images to grayscale and working in Lightroom or Nik’s Silver Efex Pro to see what kind of B&W treatment looks best.

Texas Hill Country Grayscale
Copyright © 2008 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon 40D tripod mounted, EF-S 10-22mm F/3.5-4.5 USM at 17mm, f/19 for 1/60th of a second at ISO 100 on SanDisk digital film. All post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 and Noise Ninja. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Bird Photography – Blue Heron Waiting

Of all the birds I’ve photographed, one of the most beautiful and intriguing is the Great Blue Heron. I took this image several weeks ago on a cold and windy afternoon when this lone heron was braving the cold.

Blue Heron Waiting
Copyright © 2008 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon 40D hand-held, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM with a 1.4X extender at 420mm, f/6.7 for 1/250th of a second at ISO 100 on SanDisk digital film. All post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 and Noise Ninja. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Bird Photography – Vulture Cousins

There are two species of Vultures found here in Southeast Texas; the Turkey Vulture and it’s smaller but much more dangerous cousin, the Black Vulture. Turkey Vultures or buzzards as they are know in Texas are much larger with ugly, bare-skinned faces. Black Vultures are generally smaller but travel in large groups and unlike the Turkey Vulture, they will attack live prey including cattle. Its unusual to see both species in the same area at the same time, but that’s exactly how I captured these two images only minutes apart. There were literally hundreds of vultures roosting, soaring and hunting the day I took these shots.

Turkey Vulture Soaring
Copyright © 2008 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon 50D hand-held, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM with a 1.4X extender at 420mm, f/6.7 for 1/750th of a second at ISO 100 on SanDisk digital film. All post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 and Noise Ninja. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Black Vulture Hunting
Copyright © 2008 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon 50D hand-held, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM with a 1.4X extender at 420mm, f/5.6 for 1/750th of a second at ISO 100 on SanDisk digital film. All post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2 and Noise Ninja. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Bird Photography – End of the Day

Here’s a shot I took a few weeks ago at the end of a wonderful day of shooting. These two Moorhens were settling in for the night.

Enjoy!

At the End of the Day
Copyright © 2008 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon 40D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM with a 1.4X extender mono-pod mounted at 420mm, f/8 for 1/250th of a second at ISO 100 on SanDisk digital film. All post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2, Nik’s Color Efex Pro 3.0 and Noise Ninja. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Bird Photography – Putting On the Brakes

Here’s another image I took last weekend with the Canon EOS 50D. I love watching birds in flight and capturing the incredible movements of their wings. This black-bellied whistling was putting on the brakes.

Puting On the Brakes
Copyright © 2008 Jeff Lynch Photography
Shot taken with a Canon 50D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM with a 1.4X extender mono-pod mounted at 420mm, f/5.6 for 1/750th of a second at ISO 160 on SanDisk digital film. All post capture processing was done in Lightroom 2, Nik’s Color Efex Pro and Noise Ninja. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Merry Christmas To All

Canon 50D – Raw Noise Reduction

I’ve been asked all sorts of questions about the “potential” noise levels exhibited by the Canon 50D since I updated my Comparing the Canon 40D and Canon 50D post several weeks ago. Many of the questions had to do with the “usability” of RAW images taken at high ISO levels (since the camera’s High ISO Noise Reduction settings only affect JPEG images) and the “effectiveness” of noise reduction software to correct this problem.

Last weekend I shot several hundred images with the new 50D at ISO levels from 100 to 800 (my usual range for nature photography) and in my opinion all of the images at ISO 400 and below look just as good in terms of noise as similar shots taken with my 40D. In fact, running the images through PictureCode’s Noise Ninja shows noise levels unchanged from the 40D.

However, images taken with the 50D above ISO 400 do seem to exhibit more noise than similar shots taken with the 40D. I think this is a fact that those of us shooting RAW with the Canon 50D will just have to live with. Having said that, I’ve also found that this can be overcome by using noise reduction software such as PictureCode’s Noise Ninja, Nik’s Dfine or even the noise reduction settings found in Adobe Lightroom 2.

The images below illustrate my point. The first is a 100% crop (click on the image for a larger version) of an image taken at ISO 640 and it shows both luminance and chrominance noise. At this resolution you can also see the moire pattern in the background.

The second image shows the reduction in noise that Lightroom’s noise reduction settings can achieve without softening the image too much.

The third shows the reduction that Noise Ninja can achieve with it’s default settings.

Conclusions
Remember, these are 100% crops of a 15.1 megapixel image so the noise they show is highly exaggerated. Even at this resolution, the noise found in images taken with the new Canon 50D can be easily controlled using noise reduction software. The bottom line is that the new Canon EOS 50D can create great looking images, even at higher ISO settings. The inherent noise level may be higher than the 40D but the image quality is still excellent!

So quit worrying what those technical reviews and pixel peepers have to say and go out and make some great exposures with your 50D!