Pixel Peeping **RANT**

specialman

specialman

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Name
Pat MacInnes
Edit My Images
Yes
I've kind of got to the point where I'm fed up of analysing the quality of my images - anyone else feel this way?

What I mean is this:

You take the shot, get it home, import it into whatever software you're currently using and then go over it with a fine-toothed comb only to find out that you now find the little bit of noise that would have been acceptable two years ago, now drives you crazy because your camera is 'out of date' and is 'only' 10mp.

Pixel peeping is something I've always strived not to get too involved in but I'm just finding that everyone I talk to, whether on here or in work, is so preoccupied with noise and resolution, the quality of the image (whether it's actually a good shot) and whether or not it'll print bigger than A4, that it's turning me into a worrier about said image factors. It's driving me mad!!!!

I can remember starting my degree back in 1997 and not being bothered one iota about the noise (grain) I got from ISO 400, 800 or –*shock horror!! –*the film I pushed to 3200!!! Now, I'm thinking that ISO on my D200 is too noisy... what's going on?

I've come back from a wet shoot on the beach at Felixstowe today and just looked at the shots through Aperture and I'm instantly unimpressed. The shots are good –*in fact they're very good –*but I'm finding that even before I've started to look at the aesthetic merits, I'm poo-pooing them because they have a bit too much chroma noise, a slight bit of CA, whatever.

It's driving me mad because it's A) making me a bit lazy (I'm just not even bothering to retouch stuff these days, just put it straight across to our repro dept.), and B) I know it doesn't really matter; a 10mp camera produces great images so what am I worrying about?

One of the factors seems to be the recent threads regarding the D200 that make it sound like it's box brownie; the fact it's apparently not great above ISO 1000 is really doing me head in because it keeps getting pointed out and I'm starting to believe that I should be upgrading.

Aaaarrrggghhhhhhhh.......
 
Don't say that Pat, I'm still hankering after a D200!
 
I have never EVER pixel peeped, EVER. I have no idea how to, I really haven't a clue. I simply look at the photo at a reasonable size, and if I like it, I like it. If it sucks, well it sucks.

Gary.
 
I'd just finished typing a reply when the site knocked me offline again.

So i'm not going to type it all again but i will say, I can relate in how you feel.

I think you need to ignore the detail somewhat, look at the picture on a whole achieving great composition.
 
I only pixel peep if the image looks blurred at full size.

So long as it looks alright at full size, then how cares about the pixel peeping?
 
I'm with Yv.
I used to have concerns about noise when pixel peeping, especially as people keep telling me my sensor is just too small and noisy :)
Printed a few out and they look just fine. In fact if I sharpen for printing the pictures look horrid on screen but great on paper.
 
If it looks fine at 25% it'll look fine in print, that's my mantra.
 
I pixel peep :( i just like to see how good the quality of the glass is. I keep thinking "its not that good" but when i look at it compared to my canon Powershot, i can see its lots better... We are never happy with what we have and we always want something better.
 
I know what you mean Lol, great rant :clap:

If it looks good in print then nothing else matters if you ask me. For everything else there's noise ninja!
 
As long as I can get an A3-sized print (not that we print that much...), I'm not bothered...
And most of my customers can't tell the difference between the images I shot on the D1x five years ago and the D3x now... I printed a bunch of stuff for the office walls and apart from the colours being slightly off in the older images (and no-one else here can see the difference), there's almost no way of telling which is which...
 
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