Can you get noiseless photos at night from a Ricoh GR APS-C sensor camera? In a word ... YES, along with a little assistance from Lightroom's new Denoise feature.

The photos in this video can be further inspected individually here:
View the Before and After Lightroom's Denoise feature added to each Photo in Video

So, more 'fake, AI processing?' No more than the jpeg you get straight out of the camera. That's right, the jpeg straight out camera likely has been processed to death before you see it. Even if you're shooting in manual mode, and even if you dial in the parameters of the editing straight to camera, the brain of the camera is doing exactly the same thing you're brain is doing when you use photoshop or lightroom. It's taking the digital information it's allowed to absorb, and doing it's best to make it look like a finished photo should look like.

In this video I return to the streets of Indianapolis for my first street photography walk in 2023, using my new-to-me Ricoh GR, the original.

I wasn't sure what kind of results I was going to get with the Ricoh GR, as I'm used to using the GR III, which is a much more advanced version of the original GR. However, I found I really did not need the bells and whistles that come along with the newer GR III, including the crappy plastic selection wheel on the back of the newer model that went bad on me within a few months of use. There is no plastic wheel on the original Ricoh GR, just a normal, usable selection button that should have been also used on the GR III.

I went for harsh contrast with this outing, as it was high noon on a very sunny, and unusually warm February afternoon. The sun made for great contrast, but the key is to position yourself in the right place, and wait for people to pass through the space with heavy shadow separating them from the sunlight.

I shoot all my images in RAW, and process in Lightroom. The effect of blacking out the shadows is accomplished mainly by slamming the BLACK slider in Lightroom all the way to the left, leaving the shadows at midpoint, and typically adding some WHITE slider to the right, requiring a bit of LIGHT to be pulled down to the right as needed. Add some BRUSH of black in some of the dark areas to fit your style and that's all that's required. I typically leave contrast at mid-point, or back off a bit, but usually do not increase contrast (as it makes the white areas too washed out and harsh.)

In this video I reveal my replacement camera for my Ricoh GR III. I decided it was time to switch out my Street Photography camera for something a little more stripped-down, with less bells, whistles and gadgets. While the Ricoh GR III is an incredible camera, I'm not happy with some of the features on the newer versions of the GR III, and talk about what works better for me in regards to a street photography camera. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Please leave any questions or comments below. Enjoy!

In this video I show how I use Adobe Lightroom Classic to edit my Ricoh GR III RAW files after a street photography walk. I recently switched from Lightroom 6 stand-alone version (no longer available or supported by Adobe) to Lightroom Classic a few weeks ago. I like the new version, and especially the new Masking feature in Lightroom. Both the Subject and Sky selections make it much easier to use.

Some might not like the new masking feature, and yet more 'automation' to this genre, but I say if it's available, and I enjoy it, then I'm going to use it regardless of anyone else's opinion. Yet I'm always curious what others think, and how they apply these features (or not.) Let me know in the comment section below.

One thing that makes the Ricoh GR Series cameras so special is the continued updating of firmware. Whether it's the Ricoh GR II, III, or IIIx, Ricoh Imaging continues to offer new features, keeping the cameras up to date and on pace with competitors. The latest version as of October 2021 is 1.5, but this process will work with future updates as well.

In this video, I give a simple, yet brief description on how to download, install and update the latest firmware from Ricoh for the Ricoh GR III. The same description applies for the new Ricoh GR IIIx updates as well. Along with some interesting JPEG/RAW editing updates, as well as a 4:3 and 16:9 in-camera crop feature, the 1.5 firmware allows for Eye-detection (an upgrade from the previous Face-detection only feature). While the previous version usually nailed focus on most portraits I've shot with the GR III, the eye-detection is even better. I will have future videos featuring these new upgrades soon.