A frustrating week. Some domestic appliance issues, of which more later, plus the processing of all the shots from last weekend’s polo tournament.
The Thursday and Saturday shoots were no problem; but Sunday’s match was played under inadequate floodlights, and it was a processing nightmare.
Ever tried shooting in the near dark? The obvious approach is to use a flash; but flash is only effective for a couple of metres. All those flashes you see from the stands at sporting events? Completely useless. And if you are shooting at ten shots a second, and I am, then the flash will give up and sulk after a couple of shots, complaining that it needs to take a rest and recharge. So it is available light only; which means low shutter speeds and very high ISO, which in turn means noisy images.
Here’s a shot from one of the afternoon matches:
Look more closely…
..and you can see the shot is clean and free from any noise, having been shot at ISO 200 (feel free to leave now Billy).
Now here is a shot taken at night:
Even without pixel peeping, it looks pretty crap. But then that is how polo looks under floodlight. But look more closely…
… and the horse’s skin appears to have contracted some unpleasant disease. This is sensor noise and every camera suffers from it as you increase ISO. Small point and shoot cameras are worst; everything looks like snow by the time you get above 1,000 ISO. This one is at 3,200 ISO and it is not too bad (although not as good as the latest Nikon cameras, the bastards); but it does rather spoil the image. You can apply some noise reduction…
..but then every goes soft and buttery and crap.
Bit of a problem; and I had three hundred of these nighttime nightmare shots to contend with.
The answer was to convert them to black and white. Somehow it is visually acceptable to have noisy black and white photos; a reminder of classic film photography and appropriate for a classic sport such as polo.
Another option was sepia, another classic look:
In the end, I produced three sets; color, black & white and sepia. The club can decide which to use. Personally I hope they decide never to play under floodlights again. Substandard photos and the floodlights encourage the mosquitoes to stay awake and carry on biting. I am covered in mosquito bites and suffering from unsatisfied photographer syndrome. Give me some sunlight next time please.
Comments 🔗
2010-03-26| genuinej saysShushhhhh. Never mind the noise.Who won the game and why has one of the horses got a banded krait at its rear end?
2010-03-27| Spike saysGood question. “My” team won all their matches and the tournament. The champagne was excellent.
All the horses have their tails braided and taped, otherwise they could get caught up in the action. Alternatively, sticking a snake up their bum is a speed incentive.