Jan 25 2009—Have you ever gotten a grainy agility photo—from PawPrintsLife or from another photographer? Virgil and Rebecca did some camera setting experiments at the Jan 09 Medina Swarm trial, and we came up with new settings that significantly reduce grain, even in the fastest action shots.
Before this month, Virgil was shooting at reduced resolution, because shooting 16.4 MB RAW files to make 4x6 and 5x7 prints would be serious overkill. Those RAW files would be far too big, making it impossible for Virgil to shoot the number of images he typically takes during an agility run.
During our January vacation, we did tests at full resolution using the JPEG file format rather than RAW. Despite the usual limitations of JPEG (lossy compression and 8-bit colorspace), we found that the internal processing by the Nikon D3 more than compensates. So we’re pleased to offer our clients higher resolution photos with the same brilliant color and clarity that people expect from us, with significantly reduced grain and even greater custom cropability due to the increased image size. And Virgil can still do all this while capturing up to nine frames per second, which gives even greater opportunities for the ever-popular jump sequences (see the Photo Products page).
What makes the difference? The EXPEED image processor inside the camera is optimized to produce professional quality JPEG images with incredible resolution, color, clarity, and saturation.
This new approach widens the gap between what Virgil can do with the Nikon D3 cameras and what other photographers can do with other systems. Virgil can now more successfully stop action even when a BC is running at 25 mph and even in the low light of a horse barn!
To see some of the results from using this technique—images that Nikon calls “breathtakingly rich“—check out the Jan 09 Medina Swarm trial. We think you’ll be as pleased as we are!
If you have any questions about cameras, software, or photography, Virgil would be glad to hear from you. You can email him, you can call (513) 779-8934, or you can stop by at an event and ask questions.
P.S. By the way, if you’re ever displeased by a PawPrintsLife image, please contact us. We’ll do whatever we can to make it right.
