ISO/Composition Question

[Tbo]

Hey guys and gals. I had a couple of questions. The first one, is it ever ok to center the subject in the photo? I understand rule of thirds and all of that but sometimes I feel it looks better if its center. Example below.

And the second question is I did a lot of close ups but I feel like i got a lot of noise in PP. Is this because my ISO setting was too high? I understand that there are probably a lot of factors that contribute to noise. My ISO was set at 800 I think.

If you want to throw a CC in I would appreciate it. Thanks everyone.

 

[GFreg]

Rules are meant to be broken and yes a higher ISO will give you more noise. That is just a simple answer, sorry I don't have more time.

 

[bigtwinky]

I also firmly believe that rules are meant to be broken, but only when one knows why and how they are breaking the rules.

There are shots were having the subject centered works and having them off centered would not. These usually involve some sort of visual symetry.

The term rules is a bit harsh, they are more like photographic basic composition guidelines. Rules is just easier to say. Once you understand the basics, you are good to move on to the not so basic.

 

[Dwig]

I also firmly believe that rules are meant to be broken, but only when one knows why and how they are breaking the rules. ...

Correct, never break a rule that you don't fully understand and don't do it when you don't know why you're breaking it.

There are several things that lead to excessive (a very personal value judgment) noise. excessively high ISO is one, also exposure correction (this is effectively a variant of elevated ISO), and white balance or other color correction (variants of exposure correction done selectively by color channel and therefore variants of elevated ISO). These all affect the real noise level that would be measured by test equipment.

There is a second equally significant factor to consider, and it raises it ugly (or beautiful, again is just personal value judgment here) head in the posted images. That is that the human brain (remember, you have very little idea what your eye's "see", you really perceive with your brain and its computer processing) notices texture, noise with digital and grain with film, more when there is no image detail. You "see" it more in smooth skies and out-of-focus backgrounds and foregrounds. Where the image is sharp and full of detail you notice it far less. With images like these you either need to use the lowest ISO and perhaps some PP to minimize noise or plan the image so that the noise is used as an intended aspect of the image, the choice belongs to the artist.

 

[bhphotography]

Break the rules, seriously, no need to be exactly like somebody else!

I find the "close up" photos to be slightly out of focus, You could possibly be trying to focus closer than the minimum focus distance on your lens. And yes, the higher the iso, no matter what camera will generate noise.

For the water droplet, it seems to have a tad of motion blur, maybe try to up your shutter speed, possibly to 1/640

 

[benlonghair]

Noise is a matter of taste. I don't mind some noise as long as it's even across the photo. People have been dealing with it since the advent of photography.

Here's one of my favorites of my own. (Big file, 8+ mb)

The background is very grainy at 1:1, but the overall effect is good, in my opinion. The smaller version shows almost no noise and is sharp, whereas if I do a noise reducer, it makes it very soft.

 

[Ra_]

Not sure if noise from ISO is your issue. In the last one your subject seems a little under exposed. Try using spot metering to expose the subject correctly. This would make the background even brighter, so it really depends on the look you want. When the light source is behind your subject your sort of limited in what you can do with a single exposure.