Or kill it!!! I have been noticing more and more that i get a lot of noise in colorful photos even when the iso is at 100. (this especially seems to occur on skies or in water refelecting things.) I have been attempting to use noise ninja. Can anybody give me some tips on how to work it. Even if you have suggestions for other programs/methods to get rid of that ugly noise id love to hear em! Thanks,
Only time I get noticeable noise (same camera as you) shooting iso 100/200/400 is if I am underexposing the shot. This usually happens when I'm taking a photo that has a lot of bright sky in that I expose for leaving the rest of the shot underexposed. When you ratchet up the exposure in your raw utility, you end up bringing up a bunch of noise.
Ok, here are two examples. Converted them from raw, but never made any changes to them. Given, they are both underexposed, but im not sure how to get the sky like that without it. The second was taken at night with a long exposure. Im trying to experiment with exposure becaues i never seem to get it right. Here they are
Jimmy, those are WAY underexposed. You are better off exposing to the right on the histogram then adjusting levels/curves to darken 'em up if that's what you want. You'll ALWAYS get noise in broad, underexposed areas of a digital image.
Try going out and shooting a similar scene with a wide range of exposures from over to under, then using levels to make them all "look" the same, then zoom in and check the noise; you'll see what I mean.
Thanks a bunch bear music. Though it may sound like something completely obvious, this kind of tip means a lot to me. Had just been reading about exposure and skies and was trying to get it to look colorful instead of too bright. I didnt know that underexposing creates noise like that. Ill try it again as soon as i get a chance. Cheers,
Jimmy, I popped that shot into photoshop and had a go at it. The following represents levels adjustment plus a bump in red and yellow saturation. I did not find the noise truly excessive, but I then ran it through neat image anyway; the neat image calculated adjustment was actually pretty minor, but for what it is worth here it is:
Robt.
Note, btw, that the levels adjustment REALLY helps in the foreground...
Thanks Bear! I just tried to match it with my original in photoshop and it turns out pretty good. I guess its this kind of knowledge i need to get quicker with when it comes to photoshop. Once again, though, this kind of experience is what works best for me. I really appreciate your response!
Here's a tip for you BTW; any time you have an image that looks WAY wrong as far as exposure goes, make a duplicate of the BG and "autolevel" it, just to see what happens. You can always toss it, but sometimes the results give you an indicator of where to go.
