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Manual VR


Jared

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I was playing around with a couple techniques today with my M10, and I was curious whether others use the same process...

 

As I am sure you are all well aware, the M10 has no included VR function (in body or in lens).  I was curious just how good or bad the results would be if one substituted manual exposure stacking for VR.  I was pleasantly surprised at the result!

 

Here is the idea.  Assume you have a static image in a moderately dark environment--too dark to handhold at a reasonable ISO at any rate.  If you had a tripod, you could just use that--keep your ISO low and let the exposure go as long as you need.  But what if you don't have a tripod?  I tried the following:

 

1) Push the ISO up however high I need to in order to be confident that shutter speed will give a sharp result

2) Put the camera on continuous drive

3) Snap a series of images (for my example I chose 10) of the static subject handheld, keeping the camera as steady as possible

4) Expose to the right--this will reduce the chances of banding at high ISO

5) Import all the images into Lightroom and check to make sure none of them had significant motion blur

6) Zero out sharpening and noise reduction--don't try to choose a good value, just set everything nominally to zero

7) Export all the images to Photoshop as layers

8) Select all the layers in Photoshop and choose "Edit/Auto Align Layers"

9) Average the layers together (by setting the transparency to 100/50/33/25/20 etc.)

10) Flatten the image

11) Apply sharpening and noise reduction to taste

 

That's it!  The results can be surprisingly good.  Frankly, I suspect they may be as good as VR would have been in many cases.  

 

Here is an example.  This is an average of ten separate exposures aligned and stacked in Photoshop.  Aside from the steps mentioned above, the only additional processing was manual white balance, some exposure adjustment (down), and a slight curve to increase contrast.  The shots were taken with the M10 at ISO 12,500 (higher than I would normally use except in utter desperation), 1/180s shutter speed, 75mm Summicron, f/2.

 

This is a down-sampled version of the full, processed frame...

 

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Obviously, it's not exactly a compelling photo, so please no comments on the artistic merit or complete lack thereof.  It was just a dark section of my house, so easy to use for this purpose.

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Here are 100% crops of a portion of the "Manual VR" frame and of a single frame to show the difference...

 

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And here is a single frame at ISO 12,500.  

 

 

Using this technique, you can get back much of the dynamic range you lose at high ISO, you can recover the color depth that I (at least) tend to lose when I push the ISO, you can get rid of the noise, and, frankly, the hit to image resolution is quite small all things considered.  Basically, it's a manual version of VR/Image Stabilization.

 

The downsides, of course are significant.  It's much more cumbersome than just having image stabilization built-in on the camera body or lens.  It's probably still not as good a result as you could get with a tripod and remote release, and it will only work with static scenes.  BUT, within those limitations it can be the difference between capturing an image with poor or even terrible technical quality and one that is quite good.  

 

I've never tried this in the real world.  Have any of you?  

 

- Jared

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By the way, the strange color aliasing in the first JPG is not visible except in the compressed JPG.  Here is a version with less compression to show...

 

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And here are a pair of crops from nearer the center of the frame.  First, the "Manual VR" version...

 

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And now the single frame...

 

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I beg you pardon. I'm too old to understand all modern concepts but it seemed to me that create a VR should be to involve some one in a virtual atmosphera by informatic or other procedures. Are we been involved by these images or by the Photoshop procedures? YMHO, the used technics have nothing to do with VR and YES with succeed in solving a problem of taking a picture in a dark scene. I'm sorry if my post has being offensive..

 

Francisco.

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Being a Nikon shooter I understood immediately the meaning of VR (Nikon's term for image stabilization).  I found the OP's example interesting and something to keep in the back of my mind should I find myself without tripod in a very low light situation with an important photo opportunity before me..  I suspect Lightrooms Merge to HDR feature would achieve a similar result.  These exercises appeal to my geek nature.  Much like the full color images captured with one of Leica's Monochrom bodies.

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Being a Nikon shooter I understood immediately the meaning of VR (Nikon's term for image stabilization).  I found the OP's example interesting and something to keep in the back of my mind should I find myself without tripod in a very low light situation with an important photo opportunity before me..  I suspect Lightrooms Merge to HDR feature would achieve a similar result.  These exercises appeal to my geek nature.  Much like the full color images captured with one of Leica's Monochrom bodies.

I would expect Lightroom’s merge to HDR to work as well, but it might also try to play games with dynamic range as well. Not sure. Certainly worth a try as it would simplify the flow a touch. I was comfortable in Photoshop since I often use it to combine layers for my astrophotography.

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I beg you pardon. I'm too old to understand all modern concepts but it seemed to me that create a VR should be to involve some one in a virtual atmosphera by informatic or other procedures. Are we been involved by these images or by the Photoshop procedures? YMHO, the used technics have nothing to do with VR and YES with succeed in solving a problem of taking a picture in a dark scene. I'm sorry if my post has being offensive..Francisco.

Nothing offensive, Francisco. I should have used the more generic term of Image Stabilization. I used to shoot Nikon cameras, and they refer to their image stabilized lenses as VR lenses. Nothing to do with virtual reality.

 

Based on a bit of empirical testing, I’d say the technique I described could easily get you three stops of benefit in terms of signal to noise ratio by using a 15 frame burst. It’s hard to quantify exactly since the exact contribution of read noise vs. shot noise isn’t known for various ISO’s, but it seems like a pretty useful technique. Certainly worth a try if you find yourself ”trapped” without a tripod. It literally could function as a less convenient image stabilization technique.

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Nothing offensive, Francisco. I should have used the more generic term of Image Stabilization. I used to shoot Nikon cameras, and they refer to their image stabilized lenses as VR lenses. Nothing to do with virtual reality.

 

Based on a bit of empirical testing, I’d say the technique I described could easily get you three stops of benefit in terms of signal to noise ratio by using a 15 frame burst. It’s hard to quantify exactly since the exact contribution of read noise vs. shot noise isn’t known for various ISO’s, but it seems like a pretty useful technique. Certainly worth a try if you find yourself ”trapped” without a tripod. It literally could function as a less convenient image stabilization technique.

.

Thank you very much Jared for your detailed explanation. Really I've run for a very wrong way. I apologize, but since my 14 y.o., along all my live, all my cameras have been always Leica and I've no idea about the peculiarities of other brands. You can imagin then all happened

Francisco.

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