Anyone know what I might have done? (Camera settings on old shots)

[Geoff79]

You know, a lot of cameras seem to produce their best dynamic range output at high ISOs!!
Caveat for that is when the file type output is jpg tho. And this would be because jpgs have less processing ability than raw file types.

But when shooting raw, best to always try to use as low a ISO as practical, to help recover detail in PP.

As I slowly make my way through these shots I’m seeing quite a poor picture quality, especially in the shadows. All sorts of noise in rocks etc. And it is very hard to extract any detail in sharpening without destroying the pic completely. I’m sure someone with good PP knowledge could work with them quite well, and I’ll at least get better results when I look back in this trip for the memories... but the noise is definitely very obvious.

I’ll probably aim to post a few of the processed pics to see if people have any sublime PP hints for me.

End of the day, whatever I get from the pics now is 100% preferable to the HDR mess the entire album was before.

[fillum]

First pic is reported as Program AE in the exif(maker notes).

Good point about the maker notes. I was referring to the data Geoff listed. I'm sure I've used viewers that only ever showed "Auto" / "Manual" for exposure mode - although I pretty much only ever use 'A' and 'M' so perhaps too small a sample? (Precise info extracted is probably dependent on how the exif viewer works?).

Technically the AEB feature shouldn't do anything out of the ordinary

I don't know what you consider to be "out of the ordinary" here. Given the ISO of 1000 in the middle of the day (which is perhaps out of the ordinary), the camera behaved as I would expect. Geoff stated that he had shots at f/20 which might seem out of the ordinary but could be expected given the conditions and other settings. In normal shooting mode (ie non-AEB) the camera would likely use a more 'mid-range' aperture, say f/11 in these conditions. I have assumed that bracketing is done by varying the shutter-speed only (when within equipment limits), which makes sense but might not be correct.



Cheers.

[arthurking83]

Good point about the maker notes. I was referring to the data Geoff listed. I'm sure I've used viewers that only ever showed "Auto" / "Manual" for exposure mode ...

This is why I asked Geoff to supply a jpg not processed with Adobe software.
Adobe thinks it rules the world, and in it's wisdom, destroys a lot of data within all the exif data .. usually mashes up 'maker notes' .. as it sees fit .. etc.

Out of camera files contain a lot of data, and not just specific to the image itself .. but many cameras settings, even unused ones.

I use a few programs for exif viewing, some just to see basic exif data, but my preferred full featured exif viewer is Exiftool, but via ExiftoolGUI(Win only).

What I meant by 'out of the ordinary' was in that the camera may have some unique limitations on using some feature.
I was thinking that maybe using AEB(bracketing) maybe the camera set itself to ISO1000 .. unlikely, but I don't know how Canon cameras set themselves up.

As an example of a real world 'out of the ordinary' camera limitation .. D800 comes with the ability to shoot HDR in camera, and seeing such a feature the prospective buyer would think great! .. I could use that.
In practice tho, it's implemented woefully in camera.
You don't get a any real options to set the exposures up, I think only two exposures! .. and then, you can only set the file capture to TIFF format!
Why they restrict the user to TIFF output is one of those anomalies that could only make sense to the brainless types that programmed the firmware developer. To the user, why not jpg(easy output, easy usage options) and to the more advanced user, only raw file types make any sense .. least of which is that a tif file is a minimum of 2x the storage requirement. Really just stupid on Nikon's part to allow this through to the final product.

Bracketing will vary shutter in [A] and [M] mode, but then aperture in [S] mode .. or it may vary ISO is that is used as an exposure variable.

The use of f/20 isn't all that strange, considering [P] mode was used for the exposure mode.
I've had a bit of a look into it, Nikon detail what to expect from it in the manual, Canon only basically explain what it's purpose is.
On the Nikon manual, there is a table(graph) of what to expect in terms of variables when using it. I suspect Canon would use a similar programming method.
For a given environmental Ev, it varies either aperture .. then aperture AND shutter .. then shutter according the the Ev conditions.

On the Nikon manual the graph is laid out for a 50mm f/1.4 lens. And so, up to 4Ev, it maintains a wide open aperture, between 4Ev and 18Ev it varies both aperture and shutter in a linear manner. As Ev increases from 4Ev, Aperture is stopped down, and shutter increased to maintain a correct exposure. Exposure can also be tuned with compensation if needed. But say at 4Ev, a= f/1.4 s=8s, then at 6Ev they've set the Program to use a=f/2, s=15s .. and so on.
So for every 2Ev shift, they vary each of those variables by 1Ev each .. and in between ... eg. each 1Ev change they vary each setting by an appropriate amount.
I assume that each lens type(focal length) will also have an appropriate shutter speed set up in the table too .. probably based on the 1/FL rule as best as they can.

So going by that programming table, middle of the day could be about 18-20Ev in brightness, depending on what exactly is in the scene(like lots of sky, reflective water, sun .. etc) that could give exposure variables in the range of f/20 and 1/4000s or something(remembering that ISO1000 has been set!)
Had ISO been set to 100 or 200, then of course the shutter or aperture would have been appropriately changed to something more like f/16 and maybe 1/1000s or whatever was required for that scene.