Just experimenting over the weekend with the new cam, and happened upon something VERY interesting. ; This camera is quite good at high ISO, as are most of the latest batch from most manufacturers. ; However, it has one neat trick and that is an in-camera HDR function. ; It can be done handheld, and is really a neat feature...but it also dawned on me that it could be very interesting to use for night shots, for three reasons - 1. it increases dynamic range fairly significantly, and 2. it allows use of higher ISOs with little or no noise due to stacking, while retaining very good detail. ; The higher ISOs could be useful when taking slow shutter shots of scenics or landscapes where too long a shutter might result in motion blur from wind, people walking through frame, etc...normally I'd always go lowest ISO for slow shutter, but admittedly, the situation isn't always appropriate for a 30 second shutter. ; By raising the ISO, you can get the same light with a 5 second shutter. and 3. It might allow using smaller apertures at the same shutter speed for better depth of field when shooting night landscapes.
So one experiment was to step outside my front door at nearly 2am, stick my camera on my wall, and blast off an HDR+2 shot at ISO1600 and F8 to see what I got. ; Note...my yard was quite dark to the naked eye, while the clubhouse lights in the distance were well lit - the focus point was on the distant trees lighted and lining the clubhouse entrance road, about 100 feet away - so there is a ton of contrast and focal distance in the scene (if you look close you can see the shadow areas which have been made much fainter due to the HDR):
This was a wowza moment for me - a whole new shooting style or technique that could come in handy in specialized applications. ; Virtually noise-free at ISO1600, huge detail and massive DOF, and big-time dynamic range...all from a 6 second shot propped on a wall, shot in jpeg with no conversions and no post-processing at all. ; I'm seeing some cool potential here!
(of course, anyone interested in such techniques can do this without the in-camera HDR - just post process for HDR with several high ISO shots from tripod. ; I just like that the feature is built into the camera, so I can just use it spontaneously and without any post processing needed).
So one experiment was to step outside my front door at nearly 2am, stick my camera on my wall, and blast off an HDR+2 shot at ISO1600 and F8 to see what I got. ; Note...my yard was quite dark to the naked eye, while the clubhouse lights in the distance were well lit - the focus point was on the distant trees lighted and lining the clubhouse entrance road, about 100 feet away - so there is a ton of contrast and focal distance in the scene (if you look close you can see the shadow areas which have been made much fainter due to the HDR):
This was a wowza moment for me - a whole new shooting style or technique that could come in handy in specialized applications. ; Virtually noise-free at ISO1600, huge detail and massive DOF, and big-time dynamic range...all from a 6 second shot propped on a wall, shot in jpeg with no conversions and no post-processing at all. ; I'm seeing some cool potential here!
(of course, anyone interested in such techniques can do this without the in-camera HDR - just post process for HDR with several high ISO shots from tripod. ; I just like that the feature is built into the camera, so I can just use it spontaneously and without any post processing needed).
