Testing my new gear on some airways today - What do you think?

Today was the first time i could see anything above due to rubbish weather, i have a 7d 1 and use a new 55-250 STM on it, i have beeb trying ETTR to cut back on some of the noise(as i know the 7D is not the cleanest cam esp with cropping), i have also been trying to apply noise reduction on the separate channels to help a bit.
These two have been cropped down by about half their size then displayed full size on here.

What do you think IQ and noise wise taking into account the crop?

P.

I do not know how you post process, but with my 7D i never got noise problem like i see here, especially at ISO 500, even cropped half, it look like you have taken those shot at ISO 3200 without PP

BTW i expose to the right with 7D starting around ISO 800 (1/3) only when there is a lot of dark zone in the subject

Reservoir Dog wrote in post #17632914
I do not know how you post process, but with my 7D i never got noise problem like i see here, especially at ISO 500, even cropped half, it look like you have taken those shot at ISO 3200 without PP

BTW i expose to the right with 7D starting around ISO 800 (1/3) only when there is a lot of dark zone in the subject

Both those shots where in TV with Auto ISO enabled, both were shot at 500 ISO and are cropped to about 2000 from there normal size, then pp work was done in LR4.4 where i set noise control at 30 luminance, 25 color, and in sharpening Amount 80, Radius 1.5, Detail 20, Masking 70

In the exposure settings i pulled the exposure back down from near to the right were the whites and highlights was and centered the exposure, then i brought the contrast, shadows and blacks down by about 30 each.
I then saved as a 100% jpeg at 72 DPI with export sharpening at max.

Was that not a good workflow?

P.

How can you ETTR in Tv with Auto-ISO? AFAIK, you can't dial-in EC on the 7D with Auto-ISO enabled.

But looking at your image it seems to me that your problem is still due to humidity, dust, pollution and distortion caused by atmospheric heat gradients. Trying to get a sharp and detail-rich photograph of an object 7 miles away is a huge challenge under ideal conditions. Even if you had a 600mm lens to avoid such heavy cropping you'd still face the same problem at this distance.

Perhaps you can occasionally take a field trip to an airport for an opportunity to shoot these aircraft when they are at lower altitude?

Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM
Image Date: 2015-07-15 17:12:34 (no TZ)
Focal Length: 250mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)
ISO equiv: 500
Exposure Bias: +1.67 EV
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Auto

Sure the haze do not help as mentioned by bumpintheroad but i checked your exif EC +1.67 = It's a lot too much here
Now i understood why it's like that

Reservoir Dog wrote in post #17632960
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM
Image Date: 2015-07-15 17:12:34 (no TZ)
Focal Length: 250mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)
ISO equiv: 500
Exposure Bias: +1.67 EV
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Auto

Sure the haze do not help as mentioned by bumpintheroad but i checked your exif EC +1.67 = It's a lot too much here
Now i understood why it's like that

How would that make the image more noisy? as the histogram was settled nicely on the right - not crashed curves but over lapping and not hitting the right edge so the highlights where not blown out, I tried watching the histogram on the camera while shooting and even 1 Stop + was not enough as at that level the histogram was just centered with no ETTR.

P.

I would show a screen shot - but i don't know how?

P.

bumpintheroad wrote in post #17632949
How can you ETTR in Tv with Auto-ISO? AFAIK, you can't dial-in EC on the 7D with Auto-ISO enabled.

But looking at your image it seems to me that your problem is still due to humidity, dust, pollution and distortion caused by atmospheric heat gradients. Trying to get a sharp and detail-rich photograph of an object 7 miles away is a huge challenge under ideal conditions. Even if you had a 600mm lens to avoid such heavy cropping you'd still face the same problem at this distance.

Perhaps you can occasionally take a field trip to an airport for an opportunity to shoot these aircraft when they are at lower altitude?

I understand this well, I was not scrutinizing how good the shot should be compared to closer subjects(been there discussed that)
what i was doing was comparing the image difference against my previous gear - Nikon d7100 with 70-300Vr lens when used at 200mm against me using my new 55-250 STM at full reach The STM is a very sharp lens sharper than the nikon was.

I was interested in many variants from the focusing accuracy to the sensor performance etc.

Its slightly different tech but i believe the 7d has a rock solid focus system, and so far i am finding this true, combined with the STM its all good.

P.

Pagman wrote in post #17632979
How would that make the image more noisy? as the histogram was settled nicely on the right - not crashed curves but over lapping and not hitting the right edge so the highlights where not blown out, I tried watching the histogram on the camera while shooting and even 1 Stop + was not enough as at that level the histogram was just centered with no ETTR.

P.

It's a combination of an over exposed image and PP
He sharpen in the beginning of it's PPssing with a mask of only 70% means pixels in the sky might also be sharpened, then he bring the contrast back + the blacks and shadows means those "little worm" which give the sharpening are contrasted and become more visible
But it's only a supposition, i still try to find out why it's like that
If we can get the RAW it will be easier to point out what's wrong

How do i do a screen shot from LR4.4 to show on here?

P.

Pagman wrote in post #17633002
How do i do a screen shot from LR4.4 to show on here?

P.

no need, it will no give us in which order you did your post processing, but putting the RAW online and give us a link to download it will help a lot more

Here is the Screen shot - sorted how to do it, this shows the RAW before any work on it.

P.

That was how it came out of the cam with nothing touched in LR4.4.

P.

bumpintheroad wrote in post #17632949
How can you ETTR in Tv with Auto-ISO? AFAIK, you can't dial-in EC on the 7D with Auto-ISO enabled.

But looking at your image it seems to me that your problem is still due to humidity, dust, pollution and distortion caused by atmospheric heat gradients. Trying to get a sharp and detail-rich photograph of an object 7 miles away is a huge challenge under ideal conditions. Even if you had a 600mm lens to avoid such heavy cropping you'd still face the same problem at this distance.

Yup, lots of atmospheric junk the light has to pass thru.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #17633017
Yup, lots of atmospheric junk the light has to pass thru.

Frank - that aint the point you know that.

P.