This spotted hyena seemed to be waiting for the rain to let up before venturing completely out of the den. Photo taken on the Laikipia Plains of Kenya. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 1600, f/4 at 1/320th of a second
Hello Sean,
I have been reluctant to push the ISO on my D300 as high as 1600, but I see you have no issues with that and the images show no degradation. Any tips/advice on that? On the other hand, on my D3s, I don’t have to think twice:)
Hi Jacqueline, by the way, just checked out your website again. Very nice images. I love that little elephant surrounded by mom’s legs. I’m heading to Botswana for a second time come mid August. As for ISO, yes, I do push to 1600 when necessary. I’d much rather have a bit of noise, then to not get the shot due to blur from the animal’s movement. The main thing is to make sure that you’re not underexposing at all. Noise tends to show up in underexposed images (especially when you attempt to fix the underexposure in post). Also, scenes with a lot of dark areas aren’t going to respond as well to higher ISO settings as scenes with lighter tones. A dark scene at 800 can look noisier than a light scene at 3200. Also, I rarely use noise reduction in post, but occasionally will use Nik Dfine to take care of noise. It tends to overdo it at default settings so I adjust, usually just reducing the noise in large areas of continuous color like out of focus backgrounds, then removing the adjustment from areas of greater detail. And ultimately, I got over the fear of upping the ISO because when it comes down to it, no one really ever notices. They see an image that they like and respond to that rather than the fact that they might see a bit of noise. In the days of film, high speed, grainy film stocks were published all the time in National Geographic and other magazines and no one worried that you could see grain. In fact, it was sometimes used on purpose for artistic effect. Hope this helps.
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He looks like most of us in the northeast recently. When is the rain going to stop? Great ‘mood’ shot.
Hello Sean,
I have been reluctant to push the ISO on my D300 as high as 1600, but I see you have no issues with that and the images show no degradation. Any tips/advice on that? On the other hand, on my D3s, I don’t have to think twice:)
Hi Jacqueline, by the way, just checked out your website again. Very nice images. I love that little elephant surrounded by mom’s legs. I’m heading to Botswana for a second time come mid August. As for ISO, yes, I do push to 1600 when necessary. I’d much rather have a bit of noise, then to not get the shot due to blur from the animal’s movement. The main thing is to make sure that you’re not underexposing at all. Noise tends to show up in underexposed images (especially when you attempt to fix the underexposure in post). Also, scenes with a lot of dark areas aren’t going to respond as well to higher ISO settings as scenes with lighter tones. A dark scene at 800 can look noisier than a light scene at 3200. Also, I rarely use noise reduction in post, but occasionally will use Nik Dfine to take care of noise. It tends to overdo it at default settings so I adjust, usually just reducing the noise in large areas of continuous color like out of focus backgrounds, then removing the adjustment from areas of greater detail. And ultimately, I got over the fear of upping the ISO because when it comes down to it, no one really ever notices. They see an image that they like and respond to that rather than the fact that they might see a bit of noise. In the days of film, high speed, grainy film stocks were published all the time in National Geographic and other magazines and no one worried that you could see grain. In fact, it was sometimes used on purpose for artistic effect. Hope this helps.
great pic, one smart dog.
I agree with Rachel- you really capture the mood Sean!