ISO recovery?

[perspective]

Hi,
I have purchased a new digital camera with a view of learning photography. Recently I took some pictures at the school nativity, set the camera up to auto but thought I should set the ISO to high.

After getting back and playing around with the camera, and doing some research on the internet I have subsequently found out that setting the ISO to high was a bad idea. Looking at the pictures they appear to be very grainy. I guess this is digital noise? Anyway can someone please tell me if I can do some recovery on these images to restore them? Maybe using something like adobe photoshop or prefereably lightroom?

Thanks

 

[PhotoXopher]

Try something like Noise Ninja or Noiseware Pro.

 

[Shockey]

Noise Ninja is very good.
The flip side of noise reduction is it will soften your details to some extent.
Noise looks better in black and white, have you looked at them that way.

Lightroom has noise reduction and so does Photoshop they just don't work nearly as well as a program like Noise Ninja.

 

[perspective]

Try something like Noise Ninja or Noiseware Pro.

Thanks for that PhotoXopher. These look good : ) : )

 

[comasgirl]

Is Noise Ninja a program? I have neer heard of it and I have a "small" collection of pictures that I have disreguarded because of my bad ISO choice

 

[PhotoXopher]

Yes it is... should be an easy find from any search engine, I think both have free trials.

 

[Dwig]

... Anyway can someone please tell me if I can do some recovery on these images to restore them?...

Impossible, by definition. You can't "restore" something to a state that never existed. You can reduce the noise, but the results will not be as good as if the images were originally taken at a lower ISO.

The noise reduction software mentioned in other posts is the only approach. Such software can do much to reduce the noise. The better software will do this without too much sharpness and detail loss, but there will be some. The greater the noise reduction the greater the detail loss. Also, these software techniques can do absolutely nothing to increase the tonal range that was lost by using a high ISO.

 

[gsgary]

Another thing to think about is if you hadn't set the ISO high you may not even have any shots, sometimes noise is better than blur

 

[perspective]

Another thing to think about is if you hadn't set the ISO high you may not even have any shots, sometimes noise is better than blur

True.

 

[perspective]

Yes it is... should be an easy find from any search engine, I think both have free trials.

Just tried the noiseware professional plugin and the results are very impressive

Thanks again PhotoXopher

 

[IgsEMT]

bw and call it artsy

 

[PhotoXopher]

Glad it worked out for you!