East Timor: June 19 pix - Shrimp goby and octopus

[Mike Veitch]

Great saturation on those nudies, great looking species.
Nicely done all around, and thats either one small goby or one huge shrimp!

 

[justleesa]

Love'em all nick and it looks like your data is showing up in your gallery too. Cool

 

[lukeROB]

love the mantis!

 

[calypsonick]

Your pictures would have been good if it weren’t for all the “noise” (kidding). The off centered mantis makes for a great composition. Good work on all.

Thanks. I am glad you brought up "noise" becasue I have been meaning to ask about it. I have my ISO set to 50 to reduce noise and never move it under the assumption that with enough strobe lighting and macro work I don't need to change it. There is this feature called "noise reduction" in the Oly 8080 and I have it on because it sounds good but I don't really know what it is doing. Can someone explain (in non-technical terms, please) what this does ?

Thanks
Nick

 

[calypsonick]

Great saturation on those nudies, great looking species.
Nicely done all around, and thats either one small goby or one huge shrimp!

Thanks Mike. Maybe even too much saturation on the nudies. I am having a hard time going from editing photos on my laptop's liquid display to my desktop. I can't seem to calibrate the laptop to look like my desktop. What looks washed out and too bright on the laptop is often too dark on the desktop so I end up overcompensating on some shots.

I have been trying to get shrimp and goby together many, many, many times. Although not a great shot, it is my first where they are out together not minding my bubbles. BTW yes, that shrimp was pretty big and he was probably not so concerned about hiding given the size of his claws.

 

[f3nikon]

Thanks. I am glad you brought up "noise" becasue I have been meaning to ask about it. I have my ISO set to 50 to reduce noise and never move it under the assumption that with enough strobe lighting and macro work I don't need to change it. There is this feature called "noise reduction" in the Oly 8080 and I have it on because it sounds good but I don't really know what it is doing. Can someone explain (in non-technical terms, please) what this does ?

Thanks
Nick

“Thanks. I am glad you brought up "noise" because I have been meaning to ask about it. I have my ISO set to 50 to reduce noise and never move it under the assumption that with enough strobe lighting and macro work. I don't need to change it.”



And you are absolutely, 100% correct! Please keep up this mindset you cannot go wrong. I said all along that I treat any digital camera as if it had only ONE ISO setting, and that is the LOWEST possible ISO the camera is rated for. Essentially it’s just like film, if you have an ISO 50 film in the camera why would you set the ISO dial to 400 and pick up some grain or noise?
I hear it time and time again of professional nature photographers, waiting for hours even days for the wind to die down so they can take the picture of a field of wild flowers. Even when the camera is on a strong tripod, the shutter is still too slow to stop the action because of the SLOW ISO 25 or 50 film (for high resolution) and high aperture numbers for the depth of field.

So change the film with a higher ISO rating for faster shutter speeds? And pick up the grain/noise? Open up the aperture? And lose the depth of field? No, they would rather wait for the wind, and that is why their pictures make it in books and magazines and the average “snap shooter” does not.

U/W we at least bring a strobe to help things along.



“There is this feature called "noise reduction" in the Oly 8080 and I have it on because it sounds good but I don't really know what it is doing. Can someone explain (in non-technical terms, please) what this does?”



The “noise reduction” feature is only useful at the higher ISO settings, and really does not apply if you are using ISO 50, which is the case with our category of shooting, high resolution and virtually no noise.

What the “noise reduction” is really doing is softening the image to try and “hide” the noisy pixels. The problem is that the electronics cannot tell which pixels are noisy and which ones are not, so the camera softens all the pixels. The image will lose it’s sharpness but hey at least the noise is some what “muted”. Again this does not apply if you are using ISO 50. To tell you the truth I did not know about this feature until you brought it up.

These websites have some great information on the 8080 (The 8080 performs the best in its class in the noise dept.). When I first picked up the 8080 I did not think this was the camera for macro shots, and that is why my SLR will still be around, your pictures have just proven me wrong. Another reason why I am looking for a spare 8080.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/print.asp?review=olympusc8080wz&page=15

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/C8080/C88A12.HTM

Dive Safe

 

[SeaYoda]

Great stuff as usual Nick!