High ISO fire photos

[D700 Doug]

I was wondering if I should submit these images for QC, they are high ISO and shot under difficult conditions.

Does QC take that into account ? I cannot see any way of replicating the photos so they would neatly fit the QC criteria.

( and I have also not worked out the image upload thing either ) 



https://www.flickr.com/photos/76729200@N00/14745985740/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76729200@N00/14909652046/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76729200@N00/14909652136/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/76729200@N00/14746081667/

 

 

[John Allison J]

Doug

Having just failed QC on a SOLD [and they were right btw..] I am inclined to be even more cautious now. Might have been tempted with your 794 & 785 but I suspected Alamy would have preferred these in their Newsfeed.

 

Managed high iso in itself does not seem to be a big issue in my experience

John

[D700 Doug]

they are not really "News" photos but they are something that requires a high ISO and working on the edge of what is capable to show what is happening 

[Bryan]

I would be prepared to risk the 2nd and 4th shots only as they show firefighters in action and could be used in numerous situations. The other two look like a training session and, in my view, are not as powerful as a result.

 

I would like to think that that QC does take account of  the circumstances when making their decisions, and I have had a few high ISO night shots get through OK.

 

Slight risk of course, but probably worth it 

[D700 Doug]

thanks Bryan 

[Reciprocity Images]

Would agree with Bryan that the 2nd and 4th shots are strongest and most worth submitting.

 

That said, can't comment on overall sharpness/noise issues without seeing 100% crops (which AFAICT is not possible on Flickr?). Don't know about noise performance of D700, but ISO 1600 is really not so high for today's sensors. Would have no problem submitting similar shots from my cameras (either Canon 6d or Fuji x-Pro1/X-T1), providing they are well exposed and shot!

 

-Jason

[dustydingo]

Would agree with Bryan that the 2nd and 4th shots are strongest and most worth submitting.

 

That said, can't comment on overall sharpness/noise issues without seeing 100% crops (which AFAICT is not possible on Flickr?). Don't know about noise performance of D700, but ISO 1600 is really not so high for today's sensors. Would have no problem submitting similar shots from my cameras (either Canon 6d or Fuji x-Pro1/X-T1), providing they are well exposed and shot!

 

-Jason

 

Absolutely correct Jason . . . any advice about the wisdom of submitting or otherwise is premature and, in the wash, meaningless until a 100% view is available--there is simply no way of knowing at the size presented. And the D700 eats ISO 1600 for breakfast . . . as long as you hit the exposure :-)

 

dd

[Ed Rooney]

Like Dusty, I own a D700. At ISO800 this DSLR shows no noise at all. At 1,600 it shows so little it's almost not worth correcting. Nikon got things right with this camera. D700 Dough, can I assume you use a D700 too? 

 

What QC will think is another matter entirely. I doubt that many of you don't feel that something major has changed at Alamy QC. Are they outsourcing? Who knows? But being ultra-conservative is not a way to approach photography. 

[D700 Doug]

"But being ultra-conservative is not a way to approach photography. "

I have the same feelings, yes a perfectly exposed perfectly sharp image is always good to see, but often the most powerful images have what would normally be considered technical flaws.

I have lost count of the number of times I have worried over photos for my own quality reasons only to have a client love how they express emotions.

There should always be room for a tradeoff 

[Phil Crean]

"But being ultra-conservative is not a way to approach photography. "

 

I have the same feelings, yes a perfectly exposed perfectly sharp image is always good to see, but often the most powerful images have what would normally be considered technical flaws.

 

I have lost count of the number of times I have worried over photos for my own quality reasons only to have a client love how they express emotions.

 

There should always be room for a tradeoff 

Often, "Content trumps technique"   

[Ed Rooney]

As I write this in NYC, it's 10:47AM Sat Aug 16, 2014. Take a look at the enlarged images on the Alamy home page. You remember we were talking about fog pictures the other day? And there's the Beatles. Pretty soft, but hell -- they're the Beatles. Although the veg snap doesn't look that sharp either. Hmm. And there are questions with the other images as well. Now somebody is getting ready to write me that, "Oh, Ed -- that's Smuckamo, or News feed or Student Class images. Different standard."  

[John Mitchell]

I'll echo the need to post --if possible -- 100% crops for the forum experts (not me) to eyeball. I always get helpful advice when I do so.

 

What I've started doing with images that I'm worried about is putting them in a file for uploading later during the dead of winter when I won't mind possibly being put out of commission for a month. This is a somewhat wimpy approach, I realize, but being locked inside the you-know-what during nice weather isn't much fun or very productive.

[Linda]

I had the Nikon D700 and that was one of the best cameras they made...at least one that I owned.

 

 

I shot this 'news' car accident at night on the D700 at iso 6400

 

C9HBWK

http://www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?go=1&a=-1&archive=1&size=0xFF&qt=C9HBWK&submitsearch=&ct=

 

I think I'd go for the 2nd and 4th fire shots. Then again,I'm in the sinbin now...

 

L

[Ed Rooney]

Is that you over there in the women's ward, Linda? Good news! They're showing a Jimmy Cagney film tonight . . . "Top of the world, Ma!"

[Bill Brooks]

I would submit all of them. It could be that a photo editor is doing a magazine article on firefighter training sessions and all images must be taken at a training session. I would put that fact in the caption and keywording as well.

 

If QC rejects them, it will not be the end of the world.

 

I think Alamy QC does make technical allowance for conditions. But only for conditions when there is no other way to get the image, like your firefighters. Maybe you should reduce the image size to just over Alamy's minimum 24 meg file size. That would make the noise and lack of sharpness less obvious.

 

Set the black areas as full 0,0,0 blacks. There is no detail in the blacks except noise, so turn the blacks down below 0,0,0, and eliminate all the noise in the blacks. The problem will be the firefighters who are in the lower quarter tones. You might want to adjust them separately by using a brush set to lighten, sharpen, noise reduce, in Adobe Camera Raw. You might have already done this.

 

Here is an image that passed QC, but I put a warning to the client in the description field warning that. "Note: The wing is sharp, the city lights have some motion blur, and the image is moderately noisy". The client cannot see those problems in the Alamy preview, and I don't want any surprises later on. When I processed the image I made the shadows darker to kill the noise. The detail in the image is mostly highlights, and highlights do not show as much noise as shadows.

 

[Betty LaRue]

Is that you over there in the women's ward, Linda? Good news! They're showing a Jimmy Cagney film tonight . . . "Top of the world, Ma!"

 

No, she's in the kitchen making fried apple pies with me.

[Linda]

 

Is that you over there in the women's ward, Linda? Good news! They're showing a Jimmy Cagney film tonight . . . "Top of the world, Ma!"

 

No, she's in the kitchen making fried apple pies with me.

 

Fried apple pies? I've never had one,I want one!  I know you are an awesome cook. I boil water quite well;stop by anytime!

L

[Betty LaRue]

 

 

Is that you over there in the women's ward, Linda? Good news! They're showing a Jimmy Cagney film tonight . . . "Top of the world, Ma!"

 

No, she's in the kitchen making fried apple pies with me.

 

Fried apple pies? I've never had one,I want one!  I know you are an awesome cook. I boil water quite well;stop by anytime!

L

 

 

Tell you what.  Camera in hand, you can document me in the kitchen.  But be careful that Ed doesn't jostle your elbow, as he waits for the 1st pie to come out of the skillet.

[ann]

D700 Doug - Those look like very useful photos, so I suggest trusting that QC would judge them holistically. (It seems reasonable to assume they look at 100% what one familiar with D700 would expect.)

 

Missing a chance to build best portfolio possible strikes me as much sadder than risking a QC fail.

 

----

 

Betty - Is there room for another non-cook in your kitch? Fried apple pie is safe since I must eat gluten-free

 

- Ann

[IanGibson]

 

Is that you over there in the women's ward, Linda? Good news! They're showing a Jimmy Cagney film tonight . . . "Top of the world, Ma!"

 

 

No, she's in the kitchen making fried apple pies with me.

I appreciate that this may not be the forum to request, but is there any chance of a recipe for fried apple pie? It sounds brilliant!

[Allan Bell]

D700 Doug - Those look like very useful photos, so I suggest trusting that QC would judge them holistically. (It seems reasonable to assume they look at 100% what one familiar with D700 would expect.)

 

Missing a chance to build best portfolio possible strikes me as much sadder than risking a QC fail.

 

----

 

Betty - Is there room for another non-cook in your kitch? Fried apple pie is safe since I must eat gluten-free

 

- Ann

 

I'm in clink with you all too. May I join you. I am on a low fibre diet and fried apple pie would go down a treat.

 

Allan

[Martyn]

Sounds like it's getting crowded in there….. 

 

[Allan Bell]

Nice one Martyn.

 

Just received a communication today from Alamy to tell me of the fail so I am coming out of the clink soon.

 

Strange thing is after realising I had a fail on my hands I double checked the images in the errant batch and found the image which I thought had failed and the reason for the fail. I found a very faint dust bunny in the sky. It was so faint I had trouble finding it, but find it I did by using LRs "Visualise" button.

 

The reason for the fail?  Yes same image but for SoLD.  Now I could not, and still cannot see it, as SoLD?

 

Ah well! Another check on the batch and upload again with a lot more this time.

 

Allan

[Betty LaRue]

Ann, welcome.  You, too, Allan.

 

As far as a recipe, you would need to stand at my elbow to learn.  These are made sans recipe. My grandmother made them, taught my mother, she taught me.

I make my pastry on the fly, then use dried apples, (or apricots or peaches) cooked in a bit of water until mushy and thick.  After that, the seasonings and sugar and such is by taste, and the process of adding the filling to a  6-7 inch round rolled out piece of crust/pastry, wetting edges of pastry with water, folding over, sealing and then frying in a bit of oil in a skillet is tricky.  

And of course, you have to turn the pie over to brown the other side, another tricky maneuver as they can tear easily.  I can usually get about 6 pies out of the original pastry makeup, and if I need more pastry to use up the filling, I make more. The problem is, if there is another human in the house when I make any flavor of these, they seem to disappear as quickly as they come out of the pan. There is big need for something cold to drink to cool off scorched tongues.

I usually munch on one as I'm cooking others.  Man, you haven't lived until you've ate a hot fried pie.  Still delicious cold. Maybe best because the tastebuds on your tongue aren't burnt off.

 

They are a lot of trouble to make, the kitchen looks like a disaster area, and it would be nice to have someone to be a 2nd cook to tend the one frying while I'm filling the next one on the counter. It's an assembly line process that in my case, I am Lucy without the aid of Ethyl.

One day I'll make some of these, take pictures, hope they pass QC, then you can see what they look like.

 

So sorry to hijack this thread.  Didn't know where to put this.

[John Mitchell]

Nice one Martyn.

 

Just received a communication today from Alamy to tell me of the fail so I am coming out of the clink soon.

 

Strange thing is after realising I had a fail on my hands I double checked the images in the errant batch and found the image which I thought had failed and the reason for the fail. I found a very faint dust bunny in the sky. It was so faint I had trouble finding it, but find it I did by using LRs "Visualise" button.

 

The reason for the fail?  Yes same image but for SoLD.  Now I could not, and still cannot see it, as SoLD?

 

Ah well! Another check on the batch and upload again with a lot more this time.

 

Allan

 

Glad to hear you're back on the outside. I had an image fail for "noise" -- very fine and hidden in the shadows -- last year. When I took a look at it, I found a couple of dust blobs that I had missed as well. These hadn't been mentioned, so perhaps QC sometimes just tags the first problem that they come across. I now make sure to recheck for other possible issues as well.