Camera RAW

[OFD678]

After talking with Bill about using RAW to increase light in sports shots, I took some pics of a volleyball game tonight. PSE4 will recognize the RAW files, but CS2 won't. I use a Nikon D50, so they are NEF files. Any ideas why this might be happening?

BTW, the shots to have better light, but I shot about some at 800ISO and most at 1600ISO. There was just way to much noise. I tried to hit it with a few filters, but don't think they are salvagable.

I might just shot at 400 next time and see if I can play with the exposure and brightness in RAW format to get better results.

Thanks
Brent

[w7vp]

Brent
You probably do not have the plug in for CS2.

I was looking at lenses today and talked to the guy at the camera store about the Canon 70-200L lens that is f/4. I think I am leaning away from it becaue it is not fast enough. Quantaray has a 70-200 lens that is a fixed f/2.8 and it is a lot less expensive. It would be nice to hear from anyone who has tried it... It is still over $800.

I am not surprised that you got the grain. The question is whether you can get the shot at ISO 400. What lens are you using?

[OFD678]

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Fcg8SXCbKs6EG757TNnWDHRRgC0X1

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1z2nmF46Hg0Rx4L6S3PIEeimuuQX

Hey Bill,

Above are a couple of shots. They actually look a little better downsized.

Where do I get a plug in for CS2? Adobe?

I am using a nikon 4-5.6G 70-300MM zoom. But if I zoomed very much the picture got darker and darker.

I was reading about getting a prime lens and give it a shot for volleyball and basketball. Seems the prime lenses are much cheaper.

I am going to save a few of the volleyball shots and read some more on reducing noise. I just tried a median filter and then a simple unsharp mask filter. The median filter did ok, but I know there are much better and more detail ways of getting rid of noise.

If anyone has a good way, I would love to try and save these shots. Some are pretty good.

Everyone has a favorite shot, mine is a nice crystal clear shot. Can't stand to see noise in a pic.

Brent

[AngelicKim]

Brent, I did this with a Noise reduction program (freeware).

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1JZrlRQWAzGRJHNIfpK38C3yWK4S5W0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1JZrlRQWAzGRJHNIfpK38C3yWK4S5W0)

[w7vp]

Boy I see what you mean Brent. That is a lot more grain than I expected. Yes zooming is taking you closer to the 5.6 end of the f-stop range. I am leaning toward getting an f/2.8 lens if I get anything. I saw a comment on another forum that gave the Quantaray a good review and 1/2 the price of the Canon.

[JillB]

Hi Kim-Can you share the name of the free noise reduction program you used or a link? The pic you have looks pretty good. Thanks. Jill B

[mom to 4]

Kim:

That does look really good. I would be interested in the name also. I have a bunch of bball pics taken with my 3 mp camera that I would love to be able to save.

[AngelicKim]

Jill and Colleen, sorry about that. I thought I put it on there. OOPS.

Here it is
http://www.imagenomic.com

The version I used was the free Community Edition. There are two others for purchase Standard for $26 and Professional for $49. It is my understand of the Professional version that it is a Plug-in for use with just about every version of Photoshop and a couple others.

This is actually the first time I used the program. It was really easy. You just open the photo and choose the strength of noise you want to reduce and click go and its done.

[OFD678]

Noise Ninja

http://www.picturecode.com/download.htm

Neat Image

Kim, That does look much better. Thanks. I'll give it a try.


http://neatimage.com/download.html

I found these plug ins on a Nikon forum. Both are suppose to be good.

They are suppose to be plug ins are work stand alone. I know Noise ninja is good for elements, not sure about neatimage (it says good for photoshop).

Maybe an expert will come along shortly and give an opinion on these plug ins or have a better one in mind.

Gonna try them on my pics after work today.

Thanks
Brent

[OFD678]

Kim,

We must have been typing at the same time!

Go with Kim's suggestion, mine is just a google solution!

Thanks
Brent

[mom to 4]

Kim or Brent:

Now that I downloaded it :D , where do I put it???:o

[AngelicKim]

FYI for Mac users, I looked at Brent's suggested sites. Picture Code has issued on Mac and Neat Image doesn't have a Mac version.

[AngelicKim]

Colleen, if you got the Community Edition just put it in your Program Files. It is a stand alone program for that edition.

[Wendy]

Hi Kim ...

Neat image do have a Mac version ... here is the link: :)

http://www.neatimage.com/mac/index.html

Wendy

[AngelicKim]

Thanks Wendy, I was only looking on the page Brent linked to. I looked around it and didn't see anything that said available for Mac like on the Mac link you gave it does say available for Windows. Sorry to have made an assumption.

[w7vp]

Hi gang. What a treasure you all are. I just downloaded the Community Version of the software and tried it on one of my football pictures that I had cropped and enlarged and it makes a lot of difference. It sure makes the volleyball picture look good.

Wendy - I am waiting for my tablet now so I can finish my ice cream shop image.

Colleen - I got my new monopod yesterday and tried it out at Øystein's football practice. We also have a wedding to go to on Friday so I don't know if I will be able to go to his football game that night.

I will be thinking about you on Saturday. Best wishes to all for a beautiful day and a wonderful wedding for your daughter.:)

[Wendy]

Hi Bill ...

Do you know I was only wondering the other day how you were going on with it ... I started a new one months ago but things have just been so hectic the last few months that I'm afraid that I haven't got very far with it :)

Wendy

[mom to 4]

Thanks Kim! I will do that right now before I forget!

Bill: Did ya get that pass yet??????? I will also be thinking of you this weekend! Enjoy the wedding you will be at! Thanks for thinking of me!

Actually, I was surprised at how much I like my cheap :D momopod. I thought I would still shake it, but I just went through my pictures from Tuesdays JV game and out of 230 pics, I have over 100 :eek: that I think are really good enough to do something with......just what I am not sure, :D, but I will think of something!! I thought to have 100 good ones was pretty good for my experience, isn't it :confused: ?

[AngelicKim]

I am glad everyone is liking the Noise Ware program. I totally forgot I had it till a couple of days ago when I was deleting some free trial programs I didn't want and there it was. I almost deleted it:eek: but then decided I needed to try it sometime first. Good thing Brent came along with his grainy photos when he did or I would have forgotten again. Just can't help those blonde moments.:D

[w7vp]

Kim- I'd say you're my kind of blonde!:rolleyes:

[AngelicKim]

Thanks Bill. I see so many people talking about doing photos in RAW. I did once by accident and it freaked me out when I couldn't open them but I think it was Gary who helped me open them and save them as jpg. I knew I can't take as many photos with it set for RAW. But is it better to take photos in RAW?

[w7vp]

Well it really depends Kim. If I am shooting pictures that I know I will be editing lot I will shoot in RAW. Here is one, for example, that I needed to change the exposure on before I edited it in PSE4. RAW permits a far wider range of exposure, white balance and curves adjustments than PSE 4 alone, using levels, for example. You can still use levels and the other editing features of PSE4 after you have enhanced them with the RAW software.

If I am just shooting "snapshots" then I will go to jpgs since they generally do not require as much editing.
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Nrygr6VRse349sJYtoNK0wNU5lCA1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Nrygr6VRse349sJYtoNK0wNU5lCA1)

[AngelicKim]

Thanks Bill. Right now most of what I do is snapshots and Portrait. So far I haven't had any trouble with shooting Portraits in auto or portrait mode. I think I will stick with that for now and maybe take a few in RAW just to play with and get use to it.