A small detail with huge significance!

I went to Christian Photo today,  a camera store in Urbandale with remarkable customer service, and asked a bunch of questions about my Nikon D300. Although that is a stellar camera, I have been dissatisfied with the images it’s been producing lately. I always seem to be frustrated with my photos not being as sharp/clear as I would like and need them to be, and they all looked grainy to me. I had been told that D300′s shouldn’t produce graininess until they’re set at ISO 1600 and higher.  So, I figured there was a big problem with my camera and that I would have to send it in (which is scary because that usually takes weeks!!). Well…GREAT news! And frustrating news! When I purchased my lenses, I was told I need to have protective filters on them. True. However, apparently the filters they sold me – Tiffen brand – are really poor quality, and will significantly soften the photos. This “softening” appeared to me like graininess. The salesman told me to go home and experiment. To take some photos with the Tiffen filter on, and then the same photos without. And WOW, I didn’t expect to see such a huge difference! What great news!

Even though this is kinda creepy (!), the photos of my eye below show the difference. The top one is without a filter, and the bottom one is with the Tiffen filter. Can you see the difference?

Now, I’m not sure how well you’ll be able to notice detail of a photo on the internet, but  this was shocking to me. I cropped a small square from the shadow area on the left side of each photo above, and compared them side-by-side. Here it is:

Notice how the the one on the left (filter-free) looks fairly normal for being blown up that much, but the one on the right looks terribly grainy or pixely or whatever you may call that. I am thrilled that there is such an easy solution to my frustration: Purchase higher quality filters!

A note to you photographers: if you are using Tiffen filters…take them to your local camera store and have them sell you higher quality ones!! You’ll be amazed by the difference!