dinasset wrote:
I'd like to launch a proposal for good photographers, like some around here who from time to time show up:
(assumptions: a very good camera but not so excellent that you never get noise in your photos!)
a- choose a still subject (still life is the most obvious example, but there are others)
b- take many photos of the same subject with different ISO levels: 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400 ...
c- download them from the camera in raw format, thus without any camera manipulation
d- you will have different levels of noise: likely none at 400 ISO, just a little at 800 ISO and so on
e- at this point start using the new Iain's filter with different settings
f- take note of those setting that will reduce the noise to one-two stops down, so that (let's say) a photo taken at 3200 ISO has the same noise level of one taken at 800 (or even 400)
by this way you (and all of us, including the author) will have an "objective" estimation of the power of this new filter; so far we had a carrousel of images which are considered OK by the testers -me, Matera, Rod, Acmespace, ...but in any case with a subjective evaluation; the comparicon against an original not noisy photo of the same subject will provide an aseptic reference
something like nowadays is the evaluation of an effective shake-reduction mechanism, which is mainly presented as "being able to gain 1-2-3 stops...".
Iain, I'm interested in what you think about this proposal
Firstly, thanks dinasset for you enthusiasm for my filter.
I like your idea. It will be helpful to see how other people use the filter under different circumstances, and also the results people who don't know the internals can get.
Bear in mind that the filter is not finalized yet. I am going to keep playing with the advanced controls, and probably a small to change how the tonal controls work.