Grainy Pictures

[Gentile]

I hope this is the right place to post this thread!
Anyway as some of you might have noticed I have a problem with grainy pictures. I've been playing around with the settings on my camera to try and get rid of it but it seems to keep coming up.
Can anyone give me any pointers?

[Morbid]

Can you set the iso setting on your camera manually? The main reasons for noise is a small sensor, high iso and incorrect exposure (that has to be corrected, giving noise).

[Gentile]

Ya I can. I usually have it set on automatic. Should it be set on a low setting or a high one?

[Morbid]

Lower setting will give you less noise, but you will need longer shuttertimes. So if your pics turn out blurry you need to increase it.

[Gentile]

Thank you :]

[Rist]

The general rule is to use high ISO (up to 1600) for dark scenes, and low ISO (down to 100).

Watch your shutter speed. Try to make sure it does not go into the seconds unless it is intended to create blurs. So to control your shutter speed just change your ISO accordingly. The darker the scene, the higher the ISO; the higher the ISO, the grainier the image. What ISO does is soften the image, but to do that you need to have slow shutter speeds.

If my chance your subject is not moving. Have a tripod and whack the ISO all the way to 100. And then just go ahead and click. The shutter speed will vary, but because your scene is still and you are still, no blur will occur.

Anyone can come along and correct anything I have said of course!

[Gentile]

Sweet thanks! I am pretty into using my tripod these days haha.

Question though. Is there a way to get rid of the grain in like photoshop?

[dognamedblue]

hello
my first post on the site

I just wanted to say that there is a noise/sharpen filter in photoshop along with adjustment layers and image:adjustments menu

but if I get a particular grainy pic - via my digital camera not too hot on the iso - I try to go with it and take advantage of it in photoshop, change the colour, b&w sepia ect.
dnb.

[Leukeh]

Since nobody's actually explained what ISO is... I figured I might do that for you.

ISO is the measurement of sensitivity your camera's sensor has. Just like in film you can have different ISO ratings, you can in digital as well.
A higher number ISO means the sensor is more sensitive to light, allowing you to use faster shutter speeds while still producing a light image. The disadvantage is, as said by a few people, the higher the ISO, the more grain. It can have it's uses, such as indoor photography where you need fast shutter speeds but still want bright pictures but don't have proper lighting equipment, you can uprate your ISO - don't go too far though or you will get excessive amounts of grain.

Low ISOs also have their uses - eg, you want a photo of a blurred car where the background is sharp. It's a bright day so you can't use long shutter speeds without overexposing the photo. You try using a small aperture but you still can't get the shutter speed slow enough. So you set your ISO quite low, and there you go. Nice, grain free image. The disadvantage is that you have to use a slow shutter speed.

Hope that makes sense.

I usually keep my ISO around 400 as a nice medium, unless I'm trying to do something a bit different.

[Gentile]

Thank you. I kiss your hand.

[purplerose]

Very informative Luke.

[Grumbledook]

there are a couple of apps for noise removal, some cams will have something built into the body, though usually not as good performance wise

http://www.michaelalmond.com/Articles/noise.htm

that above link will take you to a page where a guy reviewed a few different types

I have heard good things about noise ninja personally before though I've never used it

[eazym]

The common belief is that higher ISO = more grain/noise. Which is really only partly true. Keep in mind that generally having correct exposure will do more for grain/noise elimination that keeping your ISO below 800 (or even 1600). A lot of noise can be introduced in post-processing, especially if the image needs to be lightened (most of digital noise is found in the darker parts of the image, so when you lighten digitally you are making the noise more visible).

Conversely, if you're darkening an image is PS, you are not enhancing noise. Therefore usually, as the theory goes, you want to shoot a little lighter (although without completely blowing out highlights as those cannot be put back in) than you need to, and then darken in PS. Rather than underexposing and then lightening (at least if noise is your concern).

To sum up: 1) Provided the same proper exposure 400ISO is less noisy than 1600ISO = absolutely true.
2) A drastically underexposed 400ISO image that needs to be lightened in PS is less noisy than a properly exposed 1600ISO that needs not be lightened = false.

Keep in mind that I'm speaking from my experience using Canon's 20D, 30D, and 40D dSLR cameras. For point and shoots in practice, anything above 400 is probably going to be pretty nasty. But generally what I say above holds I think.

[contra808]

sweet, i had a question about this too...

I had a couple other questions that hopefully someone could clarify for me..

(all questions refer to digital camera).

1.) Does setting a long exposure, like 10-15 seconds, create a lot of noise too?

2) What creates more 'noise'... High ISO, or Long exposure??

what option would you choose to shoot a pic with LESS NOISE, granted both scenario's would give you proper exposure...
a.- Setting the ISO to 800, and the shutter at 5 seconds.. or,

b.- Setting the ISO to 100, and the shutter at 15 seconds.. hmmm?

thanks to anyone who can clarify this for me! or maybe i'll just try it out, trial and error.

[ukanfoff]

Originally Posted by contra808

sweet, i had a question about this too...

I had a couple other questions that hopefully someone could clarify for me..

(all questions refer to digital camera).

1.) Does setting a long exposure, like 10-15 seconds, create a lot of noise too?

2) What creates more 'noise'... High ISO, or Long exposure??

what option would you choose to shoot a pic with LESS NOISE, granted both scenario's would give you proper exposure...
a.- Setting the ISO to 800, and the shutter at 5 seconds.. or,

b.- Setting the ISO to 100, and the shutter at 15 seconds.. hmmm?

thanks to anyone who can clarify this for me! or maybe i'll just try it out, trial and error.

-long exposure doesnt cause grainyness.

-high iso causes more grain. also bringing a underexposed image and lightening it up causes it to show grain. having correct exposure is key.

Setting the ISO to 100, and the shutter at 15 seconds.. hmmm?
if u have the time, then i would go with this.