Tearing a Big File Into Pieces

When you apply Canon software's Digital Lens Optimizer and save the results to the RAW image it massively increases the file size. A 5D Mark III file with a lot of bright features is already fairly large. The original file I'm dealing with today, out of the camera, would be about 39 megabytes. After applying DLO processing the file size jumped to 71 megabytes.

It's no wonder my Photomatix Essentials HDR software struggled dealing with 5 bracketed files that size on my 2010 MacBook Pro. As it turned out, I didn't like the results of the Photomatix processing and I used Canon's DPP software which is limited to 3 files for HDR processing.

I used the normally exposed image and images exposed 2 stops under and 2 stops over the camera's normal exposure. There was no hand holding this time as the normally exposed image was 1/30th of a second which made the 2 stop over exposed image 1/8th of a second. All images were made with the 5D Mark III, EF 70-200 f/2.8L USM lens with polarizer filter at 200mm, f/8 and ISO 100. I used live view to reduce vibration and, of course, a tripod and cable release.

By saving the JPG after HDR processing at the highest quality I had a 26 megabyte file I could crop for better images. By saving those cropped files at the highest quality I ended up with 4 files ranging in size from 2.3 to 4.6 megabytes.

These images are all reduced to the 1200x800 file size I use to post on this blog.

Playing With An Old File

The sun is still up but it's zero degrees and falling as I type this with wind chill in the minus 20s. Not weather for being out and about.

Back in 2015, as I was moving stored images around on portable hard drives, I accidentally deleted all the RAW images from my EOS 30D, 50D, 60D and 1D Mark III bodies. I still have all the processed JPG files I uploaded to Zenfolio but I lost all the original files. I occasionally like to go back and re-edit files as I get new software or stumble across a different processing technique.

But even with only a JPG file to work with there are ways to improve images. This photo was made with an EOS 50D and the EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens back in 2010.  It was shot at f/6.3 and 1/60th of a second at ISO 100 on a tripod.

The scene is looking South from Prospect Park in Troy down the Hudson River toward Albany. The just rising September sun was blocked by the hillside, resulting in a shadow in the foreground. The first image is a normally processed file bringing up the shadows as much as reasonable.

The second image results from reprocessing that JPG file in Canon's DPP software using the HDR tool. It's a much better overall scene, I think.

Another Nice Morning for Walking and Shooting

Instead of heading for Peebles Island this morning I headed the other way along the old canal North of Waterford. And instead of carrying my 5DIII and long zoom I carried my old 7D and EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS lens. The size of this setup along with the image stabilization of the lens and the 7D's eight frames per second make it easier to obtain nicely aligned, hand held, bracketed images for HDR processing.

Only the shot of the Oak leaf trapped in ice is cropped and this is almost a 100% crop of the frame. The leaf is also the only shot which is not a three file HDR image. As usual, the exposure information is for the normally exposed file. Bracketing was +/- 1 1/2 EV.

85mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec., ISO 200

85mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec., ISO 200

85mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec., ISO 200

85mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec., ISO 400

Peebles Island Deer - It's Been a While

I haven't walked around Peebles Island with longer lenses in what seems like a long time. It was a nice clear morning and I was hoping to see the usual White-tailed Deer and maybe an eagle or two.

No luck with the eagles but I ran across over a dozen deer during my 3.5 miles walking around the island. I was carrying my EOS 5D Mark III with vertical grip and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L lens with the 2X III extender, giving me a 140-400mm f/5.6 lens on a full frame body.

Some of these are slightly to moderately cropped except for the shot with the two deer which is not cropped. All are at about 400mm and at f/5.6.

1/250 sec. - ISO 1600

1/750 sec. - ISO 3200

1/500 sec. - ISO 3200

1/500 sec. - ISO 3200

Single File HDR Images

I've been enjoying this mid-Winter weather with temperatures in the 40s and 50s to shoot some sunsets over the Hudson River. Yesterday, I shot from the bridge between Troy and Waterford and did some over the top HDR processing, which I'm getting a bit tired of. Today, from a slightly different location, I also bracketed for multi file HDR processing but ended up favoring single file HDR processing with Canon's DPP software.

Without going into technical details about the files or the end images, here are some nice views of a far less icy than normal Hudson River sunset this time of year. These shots were made with my EOS 5D Mark III and EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens.