{"id":14477,"date":"2025-04-02T07:43:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T07:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simonschoenhoff.de\/?p=14477"},"modified":"2025-08-07T08:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T08:28:17","slug":"der-einfluss-von-bildbearbeitung-auf-die-naturfotografie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simonschoenhoff.de\/en\/der-einfluss-von-bildbearbeitung-auf-die-naturfotografie\/","title":{"rendered":"The influence of image proces\u00adsing on nature photography"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The influence of image proces\u00adsing on nature photography<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMaybe you\u2019ve been there: You\u2019re on a holiday that you\u2019ve been saving up for for a long time and you capture your expe\u00adri\u00adences in pictures. After\u00adwards, you\u2019re a little disap\u00adpointed because your pictures don\u2019t even begin to reflect what you saw. If you have photo\u00adgra\u00adphed in JPG, you won\u2019t be able to do much about it, and some of the pictures might just be for the bin. However, if you have saved the RAWs at the same time, your chances of getting some\u00adthing out of the images increase signi\u00adfi\u00adcantly. This BLOG is all about what is possible with modern image proces\u00adsing using the RAWs of today\u2019s cameras. PS: Without sky repla\u00adce\u00adment or adding atmo\u00adspheric elements! <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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You can see the VLOG to the BLOG at the bottom of the page or you can reach it via this button:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDirectly to the video<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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My sister\u2019s equip\u00adment on her journey:<\/span><\/p>

Sony a6600
Sigma 30 mm 1,4 DC DN Sony\u2011E Contem\u00adpo\u00adrary
Sigma 56 mm 1,4 DC DN Sony\u2011E Contemporary
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Back\u00adground<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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My sister had planned a trip to Tanz\u00adania for the winter of 24\/25. Her main aim was to climb Mount Kili\u00adman\u00adjaro and then spend a few days on safari. Of course, she also wanted to capture this photo\u00adgra\u00adphi\u00adcally. But she didn\u2019t have much expe\u00adri\u00adence with cameras at the time. But why should she? Her husband loves taking photos and her two brot\u00adhers (one of whom is me) both have extre\u00admely profes\u00adsional photo\u00adgra\u00adphic equip\u00adment and, as passio\u00adnate photo\u00adgraphers, know all the tech\u00adni\u00adques, tricks and tips. In other words, ever\u00ady\u00adthing in their private lives is well docu\u00admented with high-quality pictures. She never actually has to reach for the camera herself. Except perhaps a mobile phone camera.<\/p>

But now she should go travel\u00adling alone, without us three photo enthu\u00adsi\u00adasts. What do you give someone like that? So what tips do I have for someone like this, without giving them time for exten\u00adsive trai\u00adning in photo\u00adgraphy? More on that in a moment.<\/p>

Of course, her luggage was limited, as she already had to take enough other things with her for the Kili\u00adman\u00adjaro climb. She ruled out wild\u00adlife equip\u00adment for the safari. She opted for one of her husband\u2019s cameras: the Sony Alpha 6600, plus two small fixed focal lengths that you could actually put in a trouser pocket: The Sigma 30 mm and 56 mm f1.4 Contem\u00adpo\u00adrary. All in all, a set that is available for as little as \u20ac1500 in total. <\/p>

Ok, I thought. That\u2019s fine for the photo docu\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion on Kili\u00adman\u00adjaro, but what do you want to achieve with it on the safari, I thought to myself? A task that would defi\u00adni\u00adtely be a chall\u00adenge even for me as an expe\u00adri\u00adenced photo\u00adgrapher! But it\u2019s not impos\u00adsible to get great pictures with it. I\u2019ve often heard that on some safaris you can get closer to animals than you think and you don\u2019t need 200\u2013600 mm. And with the crop factor of the Sony APS\u2011C camera, the 56 mm becomes an 84 mm lens (calcu\u00adlated on full format). That\u2019s almost in the tele\u00adphoto range. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Hiker above the sea of fog | Sony a6600 + Sigma 56 mm f\/1.4 DC DN Contemporary<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Tips for \u2018bloody\u2019 beginners<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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So let\u2019s come back to what I would advise someone who is going on a trip like this with their camera without much expe\u00adri\u00adence and I hope you can see that even without the most expen\u00adsive equip\u00adment it is possible:<\/p>

  1. Photo\u00adgraph what inspires you!
    Storage space is no longer expen\u00adsive these days, take a suffi\u00adci\u00adently large SD card with you, prefer\u00adably a second one, and shoot away. Photo\u00adgraph what inspires you and ask yourself what has trig\u00adgered your enthu\u00adsiasm in order to capture it. And don\u2019t delete anything at first. You\u2019ll learn faster because you\u2019ll see the mistakes straight away and can take countermeasures. <\/li>
  2. Be sure to record RAWs!
    Yes, I know there are always people who say this is rubbish, but it\u2019s not! Many cameras allow you to shoot JPGs out-of-the-cam and RAW in parallel. I would also use this option. In the video for this BLOG you can see how much more infor\u00adma\u00adtion a RAW brings with it. Even if you are a beginner and don\u2019t want to or can\u2019t do any image editing, save the RAWs with your photos. You can still tweak them years later and turn the odd snapshot into a photo\u00adgraph for the wall!<\/li>
  3. Don\u2019t think too much about camera settings!
    The auto\u00admatic modes of the cameras are not too bad. Normally, they ensure that the image is exposed as evenly as possible and that most of the infor\u00adma\u00adtion is present. Of course, you should be able to preselect the expo\u00adsure time and use ISO Auto for fast animal move\u00adments. But other\u00adwise you can let the auto\u00admatic mode do the work at the begin\u00adning to mini\u00admise waste. <\/li>
  4. Cut out or sepa\u00adrate the motif!
    A great way to make subjects stand out from the back\u00adground is of course to crop them with an open aper\u00adture. Espe\u00adci\u00adally if there is only one subject in the picture and no secon\u00addary subject, you can shoot quite wide open and the back\u00adground can be blurred. If you want to preserve details in the back\u00adground (often desired in land\u00adscape pictures), you have to close the aper\u00adture. It is ther\u00ade\u00adfore advi\u00adsable to use the auto\u00admatic mode with aper\u00adture prio\u00adrity. However, make sure that the main subject and, if appli\u00adcable, the secon\u00addary subject are nicely sepa\u00adrated from hard edges, e.g. in the back\u00adground, so that its shape is clearly reco\u00adg\u00adnisable. You can also see an example in the video.<\/li><\/ol>

    An example of what infor\u00adma\u00adtion the cameras store in RAWs is this image of the lone elephant. At first glance it was comple\u00adtely over\u00adex\u00adposed, parts of the sky looked like pure white. After looking at the histo\u00adgram in Ligh\u00adt\u00adroom and adjus\u00adting the expo\u00adsure, this successful image was deve\u00adloped in no time at all, without any in-depth proces\u00adsing steps. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    The Lone Giant | Sony a6600 + Sigma 56 mm f\/1.4 DC DN Contemporary<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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    The possi\u00adbi\u00adli\u00adties in image processing<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    The next image of the \u2018Forgotten Forest\u2019 shows what details can be found in the depths of a RAW image. In the video below you can see how under\u00adex\u00adposed the shot was taken. What preserved the details in the light natu\u00adrally led to a blun\u00adting of the depths. By brigh\u00adtening the image, you natu\u00adrally bring back an unneces\u00adsary amount of noise into the image, but with the help of stan\u00addard denoi\u00adsing or even the new denoi\u00adsing tools from Ligh\u00adt\u00adroom or Topaz, you can reduce the noise to almost zero. In this case, I have even dispensed with the denoi\u00adsing and yet it is not distur\u00adbing. It\u2019s impres\u00adsive what camera tech\u00adno\u00adlogy can do here. In order to bring the atmo\u00adsphere of this forest back into the picture, I went deeper into the image proces\u00adsing and used Photo\u00adshop and Dodge & Burn tech\u00adni\u00adques to get as much out of it as possible. I think it\u2019s a great picture that I\u2019ve also printed out and framed in the VLOG. So take a look at the end result. You can\u2019t see any of the noise in the print. <\/p>

    What can you save as ever\u00ady\u00adthing in RAW shots during editing?<\/p>