Ginger

[Chrissie]

Since Ginger is part of our pack, for me she counts as "people", too.     I hope, nobody takes offence.

Beautiful day, today, with plenty of sunlight.

Shot with a9, 100-400GM, @ISO3200, 238mm, f/5.6, 1/10.000th:

 

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Dogs usually avoid looking you straight in the eye, especially with dominant members of the pack. Moving some 20 meters away and using the tele made this shot possible.

[Chrissie]

Question at the experts:

 

Although I do not see any issues with noise here, would it still have been better to use a lower ISO value? There was not really a need to shoot at 1/10.000.  I believe, 1/1.000 would also have been plenty sufficient.

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

There's no issue with noise, although it seems noise reduction was applied?

 

In such bright light you can always shoot ISO 100. Then you will get the cleanest possible file and the colours will also be a bit better. ISO 100 is the native sensitivity of the sensor, where it performs the best. Each step up in ISO will cause some degree of degradation. Quality will also be a bit better if you shoot at lower speeds and use the mechanical shutter.

 

Although, it's clear the A9 performs very well here, so there's no issue with the photo. Coming from a traditional photographic background, these numbers - ISO 3200 and 1/10000s - are just off the chart. So, the A9 producing a perfectly good photo at those settings, is a testament to Sony's engineering skills.

[Chrissie]

Thanks, Jaf, for your feedback. In other words: although my settings were absurdly off from a textbook point of view   , I was lucky (thanks to Sony's engineering skills), that the shot turned out so well regardless.   

 

I can confirm, that "High ISO Noise Reduction" was activated. Actually, this and also the fixed ISO 3200 setting were an inadvertent leftover from the previous night, when I explicitly set those while I was trying some astro and fireworks bulb shots. Apparently I'm still a little overwhelmed at setting each of those settings right for every new shooting situation ...

 

What I do not understand is why using the mechanical shutter would further enhance the image quality. Could you elaborate, please?

 

Full EXIF below:

 

• Flash (off, not triggered)
•  JFIFVersion - 1.01
• X-Resolution - 350 dpi
• Y-Resolution - 350 dpi
• Make - SONY
• Orientation - Horizontal (normal)
• Software - ILCE-9 v1.10
• Date and Time (Modified) - 2018:01:01 11:05:43
• ISO Speed - 3200
• Sensitivity Type - Recommended Exposure Index
• Recommended Exposure Index - 3200
• Exif Version - 0231
• Date and Time (Original) - 2018:01:01 11:05:43
• Date and Time (Digitized) - 2018:01:01 11:05:43
• Components Configuration - Y, Cb, Cr, -
• Compressed Bits Per Pixel - 3
• Brightness Value - 8.74765625
• Exposure Bias - 0 EV
• Max Aperture Value - 5.6
• Metering Mode - Average
• Light Source - Unknown
• Flashpix Version - 0100
• Color Space - sRGB
• File Source - Digital Camera
• Scene Type - Directly photographed
• Custom Rendered - Normal
• Exposure Mode - Auto
• White Balance - Auto
• Digital Zoom Ratio - 1
• Focal Length (35mm format) - 238 mm
• Scene Capture Type - Standard
• Contrast - Normal
• Saturation - Normal
• Sharpness - Normal
• Lens Info - 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
• Lens Model - FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS
• XMPToolkit - XMP Core 5.4.0
• Lens ID - 65535
• Flash Compensation - 0
• Rating - 0
• Creator Tool - ILCE-9 v1.10
• Coded Character Set - UTF8
• Application Record Version - 2
• IPTCDigest - 3d11bd32a4f9bd1e994337f6cc6008d1
• Camera ID - ***************
• Camera Type - Digital SLR

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

The electronic shutter can produce artifacts. This could reduce pixel sharpness or create a busy bokeh pattern. You could try taking the same photo with electronic and mechanic shutter and compare if you see any difference.

 

When I shoot casually, I'll just start by setting ISO manually. On a very bright day, I know I can shoot almost anything at ISO 100, so I just set it at that. Then when I take a shot, I'll decide which texture I want and select aperture accordingly. With your lens, I would have gone for f5.6 too (although I would have preferred a 70-200/2.8 @ f2.8 = more bokeh, because the background is uninteresting but would provide nice bokeh colours). With the camera set in aperture priority mode, it would measure the shutter speed, which would probably be below 1/1000s, depending on the metering settings. Then I would cast an eye on the histogram to make sure there's a good balance between highlights and shadow and take the shot.

[Chrissie]

The electronic shutter can produce artifacts. This could reduce pixel sharpness or create a busy bokeh pattern. You could try taking the same photo with electronic and mechanic shutter and compare if you see any difference.

 

When I shoot casually, I'll just start by setting ISO manually. On a very bright day, I know I can shoot almost anything at ISO 100, so I just set it at that. Then when I take a shot, I'll decide which texture I want and select aperture accordingly. With your lens, I would have gone for f5.6 too (although I would have preferred a 70-200/2.8 @ f2.8 = more bokeh, because the background is uninteresting but would provide nice bokeh colours). With the camera set in aperture priority mode, it would measure the shutter speed, which would probably be below 1/1000s, depending on the metering settings. Then I would cast an eye on the histogram to make sure there's a good balance between highlights and shadow and take the shot.

 

Thanks for this thorough advice. I'll report back on occasion.

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

NP and I'm impressed with the A9. If it had been around a few years earlier, I would have gone for it.