High ISO shots in Ecuador

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bajadreamer

bajadreamer

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Just starting to process my pictures from our summer trip to Ecuador. Ecuador is a small country-about the size of the state of Colorado. With .05% of the world's landmass, Ecuador is home to 20% of the total bird species in the world. Truly a bird photographer's heaven. However, many of these birds are really tough to find and see. They live in the rain forests; very dark and very dense places. This species, a Black-banded Crake is typical of these. They love dense, swampy areas where you often hear them in the morning but seldom do you see them. Our friend, Byron Gualavisi, truly a wizard with the birds, was able to set Deb and I up to not only see these birds, but to get nice photos of them. For this shot, I am laying in 2" deep water/mud and Deb is kneeling over my shoulder in the same muck ( it is amazing now what she is willing to put up with). This shot was taken while we were staying in Wildsumaco Lodge, on the eastern slope of the Andes in central Ecuador.
This was shot with a Canon R5, a 100-500 mm zoom at 500 mm, f/7.1, SS 1/400, ISO 20,000 (not a typo), EC of +.3. Processed with DXO Pure Raw, PS, and Topaz De Noise AI.

Black-banded-Crake-Wildsumaco-1-pr-ps-flat.jpg
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It is a beautiful image, however it appears from your note (using different software types ) that you had to work hard to get rid of the noise.

The fast answer for the ISO question is :
# 1: a lower pixel camera. High pixel cameras tend to produce more noise with higher ISO's.
#2: use fill in flash (not particularly my taste because if not careful you get a flattened image).
# 3 : faster lens. (Expensive option).
The following image was taken with a 24 megapixel camera, three maneuvers on it. Cropping, Denoise, minimal sharpening. Done with Darktable. I hope this helps

62C_3312_01.jpg
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bajadreamer said:
Just starting to process my pictures from our summer trip to Ecuador. Ecuador is a small country-about the size of the state of Colorado. With .05% of the world's landmass, Ecuador is home to 20% of the total bird species in the world. Truly a bird photographer's heaven. However, many of these birds are really tough to find and see. They live in the rain forests; very dark and very dense places. This species, a Black-banded Crake is typical of these. They love dense, swampy areas where you often hear them in the morning but seldom do you see them. Our friend, Byron Gualavisi, truly a wizard with the birds, was able to set Deb and I up to not only see these birds, but to get nice photos of them. For this shot, I am laying in 2" deep water/mud and Deb is kneeling over my shoulder in the same muck ( it is amazing now what she is willing to put up with). This shot was taken while we were staying in Wildsumaco Lodge, on the eastern slope of the Andes in central Ecuador.
This was shot with a Canon R5, a 100-500 mm zoom at 500 mm, f/7.1, SS 1/400, ISO 20,000 (not a typo), EC of +.3. Processed with DXO Pure Raw, PS, and Topaz De Noise AI.
Click to expand...
That's an excellent image of a beautiful little bird. Good on you doing what was necessary to get the low POV.
 
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bajadreamer said:
Just starting to process my pictures from our summer trip to Ecuador. Ecuador is a small country-about the size of the state of Colorado. With .05% of the world's landmass, Ecuador is home to 20% of the total bird species in the world. Truly a bird photographer's heaven. However, many of these birds are really tough to find and see. They live in the rain forests; very dark and very dense places. This species, a Black-banded Crake is typical of these. They love dense, swampy areas where you often hear them in the morning but seldom do you see them. Our friend, Byron Gualavisi, truly a wizard with the birds, was able to set Deb and I up to not only see these birds, but to get nice photos of them. For this shot, I am laying in 2" deep water/mud and Deb is kneeling over my shoulder in the same muck ( it is amazing now what she is willing to put up with). This shot was taken while we were staying in Wildsumaco Lodge, on the eastern slope of the Andes in central Ecuador.
This was shot with a Canon R5, a 100-500 mm zoom at 500 mm, f/7.1, SS 1/400, ISO 20,000 (not a typo), EC of +.3. Processed with DXO Pure Raw, PS, and Topaz De Noise AI.

View attachment 49935
Click to expand...
Excellent shot. Great job maintaining the detail👍👍👍
 
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Daniel Zdonczyk said:
It is a beautiful image, however it appears from your note (using different software types ) that you had to work hard to get rid of the noise.

The fast answer for the ISO question is :
# 1: a lower pixel camera. High pixel cameras tend to produce more noise with higher ISO's.
#2: use fill in flash (not particularly my taste because if not careful you get a flattened image).
# 3 : faster lens. (Expensive option).
The following image was taken with a 24 megapixel camera, three maneuvers on it. Cropping, Denoise, minimal sharpening. Done with Darktable. I hope this helps
Click to expand...
Beautiful picture; Zuro Loma?
Yes, your statements are correct. Like so many things in our hobby, it is a compromise. Actually with the new software, it is not as much work or as time consuming as it might have been in the past. I convert my RAW to DNG using DXO Pure RAW. Literally one click. Unlike many people, I use Topaz DeNoise AI as my last step after I have flattened my image and am ready to convert to JPEG. Because DXO removes about 80% of the noise (Canon CR3 files) I wait until I have optimized the image as much as I can in PS (Hue/Sat, contrast, curves, etc) and then use the De Noise. I find that by those adjustments I sometimes create some grain/noise. TDN AI does great in removing that. I often turn down or even off, the sharpening aspect of the software.
 
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Woodyg3 said:
Great shot, and the high ISO was handled quite nicely. Ecuador is on my list of places to go, for sure.
Click to expand...
Thank you. If you ever get the opportunity you should go; if you like to take pictures of birds, there are very few places (at least that I have been to) as good. Lots of good infrastructure (lodges, etc), lots of beautiful birds, friendly people. It is a great place. If you ever decide to go, PM me. I have been to many different areas of Ecuador and would be happy to give you my thoughts.
 
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What needs to be determined for a given subject, how fast a shutter speed is actually needed. A burst mode can allow a slower shutter speed and still get a keeper.

Flash in the jungles or woods where there is far less ligh can add to the rendition of the colors of an animal which is otherwise getting a lot of green reflected light from the foliage. Nikon which I have the most experience with, makes balanced fill flash very easy to do. Even a -1 EV can add snap to a subjet.

Flash and making a subject brighter than its backgrounds is another way to separate the subject from the background and not rely 100% on shallow DOF. If flash is done correctly it is not apparent in the image that a flash was used at all.
 
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bajadreamer said:
Beautiful picture; Zuro Loma?
Yes, your statements are correct. Like so many things in our hobby, it is a compromise. Actually with the new software, it is not as much work or as time consuming as it might have been in the past. I convert my RAW to DNG using DXO Pure RAW. Literally one click. Unlike many people, I use Topaz DeNoise AI as my last step after I have flattened my image and am ready to convert to JPEG. Because DXO removes about 80% of the noise (Canon CR3 files) I wait until I have optimized the image as much as I can in PS (Hue/Sat, contrast, curves, etc) and then use the De Noise. I find that by those adjustments I sometimes create some grain/noise. TDN AI does great in removing that. I often turn down or even off, the sharpening aspect of the software.
Click to expand...
You did a fantastic job with your image, impressive. Excellent results and I am happy that was not as painful as I thought. Yes, my sample image was in Zuro Loma.
 
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Calson said:
What needs to be determined for a given subject, how fast a shutter speed is actually needed. A burst mode can allow a slower shutter speed and still get a keeper.

Flash in the jungles or woods where there is far less ligh can add to the rendition of the colors of an animal which is otherwise getting a lot of green reflected light from the foliage. Nikon which I have the most experience with, makes balanced fill flash very easy to do. Even a -1 EV can add snap to a subjet.

Flash and making a subject brighter than its backgrounds is another way to separate the subject from the background and not rely 100% on shallow DOF. If flash is done correctly it is not apparent in the image that a flash was used at all.
Click to expand...
Absolutely agree. This bird was fairly cooperative-gave me about 30 seconds. My usual routine is to first shoot a burst with the fastest SS I feel I can get away with. Then, if the bird is still there, I reduce the SS (I am usually shooting Auto Iso) which reduces the ISO and shoot another burst. If possible I will repeat this pattern until I am shooting a ridiculously slow SS. I took over 100 shots of this bird in the 30 seconds he was present. He was moving just enough that my slow SSs all had some degree of motion blur.
I also use fill flash at times. Unfortunately what I find in this scenario is that it is very difficult to me to maneuver the flash attached to the camera. There usually is a tangle of bushes, grass, vines, etc. Hard enough to get the camera into position. I tend to use the flash when I am semi stationary, usually on a tripod (see my ID picture).
In this shot the bird and BG were very close and my lens was wide open at f/7.1. In PS I selectively blurred the BG to give this bird some separation.
 
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