New here! Problem with grainy photos

[Stephanie Stewart]

Hi everyone! I'm new here, and I'm by no means a professional photographer. I've focused more on the editing side that the shooting side but haven't mastered either! I've had a problem with photos being grainy. These are photos actually taken by a friend with my camera. She was using the telephoto lens one is the original and then one is edited by me. You can see by the forehead the graininess. I'm not sure how to fix it or if it's normal?

 

[Stephanie Stewart]

I guess I should add I'm using a Nikon D5100

 

[tirediron]

It looks like some digital noise incurred as a result of increasing the under-exposure in the original image. I can't pull any EXIF data, so I can't check ISO, but the images look reasonably clean to me.

 

[DGMPhotography]

It doesn't look that bad to me. I would be happy with this shot.

And just fyi, with digital it is called noise, and in film it is called grain. And in either case, you can use noise reduction software (like in Lightroom) to minimize this.

Good work - keep posting!

 

[gsgary]

Does the D5100 use film if not it is noise

 

[CmazzJK]

Hi everyone! I'm new here, and I'm by no means a professional photographer. I've focused more on the editing side that the shooting side but haven't mastered either! I've had a problem with photos being grainy. These are photos actually taken by a friend with my camera. She was using the telephoto lens one is the original and then one is edited by me. You can see by the forehead the graininess. I'm not sure how to fix it or if it's normal?

Yeah it looks reasonably good to me as well, you are gonna lose some detail when you bring the shadows up.

 

[Derrel]

Exposing more-generously is the key to eliminating noise. The original shot was not exposed optimally, hence the grain in what should have been a dead-easy scene to expose well. Optimal exposure would have been in RAW mode, with generous exposure--a LOT more exposure.

Check this new article out: The Optimum Digital Exposure

 

[greybeard]

Exposing more-generously is the key to eliminating noise. The original shot was not exposed optimally, hence the grain in what should have been a dead-easy scene to expose well. Optimal exposure would have been in RAW mode, with generous exposure--a LOT more exposure.

Check this new article out: The Optimum Digital Exposure

Expose so that the highlights are barely clipping and then bring the exposure down in processing to put everything right. Am I interpreting this correctly?

 

[sashbar]

If anything it looks rather soft more than noisy. I would say try to increase shutter speed to reduce camera shake and focus on her eyes. It is better to use one central focus point and recompose, it is the only cross type and reliable focus point with D5100 AF in my experience. If you want your images to be rally smooth and noise free, try Topaz noise reduction plugin. It works wonders with d5100 files. It is very effective with medium-high ISO. Well worth the money, if you do a lot of indoor shooting.

 

[dannylightning]

I am not seeing allot of noise, not enough to complain about. those look pretty good to me.

you could always do some noise reduction in your editing program, that is if your editing program has noise reduction.

editing a photo can definitely add some noise depending on what you do to the photo. if you can get a properly exposed image that does not need edited that much you will probably end up with less noise. if you are shooting in raw and editing the raw photo you will probably add less noise than if you were editing a jpeg.

 

[Solarflare]

Well, this is shot at ISO 1600 - thus yes, thats pretty high already, especially for an APS-C camera. Its just a toe out of the comfort zone of the D5100.

With 1/60 sec instead of 1/500 sec, it would have been ISO 200 instead. The D5100 can take ISO up to 800 with hardly any visible noise (though critical subjects will have visible noise even at ISO 100).

We cant actually see that noise, anyway, though - since you posted a very low resolution. Just half a megapixel, instead of the original 16. At that resolution, even ISO 25600 would probably still look tolerable, even if one could still see the false colors from the high ISO.

For the record, I prefer the original over your edit. It has a lot richer and more natural skin tones.

Does the D5100 use film if not it is noise

All Nikon SLRs with a "D" in their name are digital.

If anything it looks rather soft more than noisy. I would say try to increase shutter speed to reduce camera shake and focus on her eyes. It is better to use one central focus point and recompose, it is the only cross type and reliable focus point with D5100 AF in my experience. If you want your images to be rally smooth and noise free, try Topaz noise reduction plugin. It works wonders with d5100 files. It is very effective with medium-high ISO. Well worth the money, if you do a lot of indoor shooting.

Are we even looking at the same picture ? I cant see any missed focus, the shutter speed is very high - 1/500 sec, enough for sports - and I cant see any softness either.

 

[gsgary]

Well, this is shot at ISO 1600 - thus yes, thats pretty high already, especially for an APS-C camera. Its just a toe out of the comfort zone of the D5100.

With 1/60 sec instead of 1/500 sec, it would have been ISO 200 instead. The D5100 can take ISO up to 800 with hardly any visible noise (though critical subjects will have visible noise even at ISO 100).

We cant actually see that noise, anyway, though - since you posted a very low resolution. Just half a megapixel, instead of the original 16. At that resolution, even ISO 25600 would probably still look tolerable, even if one could still see the false colors from the high ISO.

For the record, I prefer the original over your edit. It has a lot richer and more natural skin tones.

Does the D5100 use film if not it is noise

All Nikon SLRs with a "D" in their name are digital.

If anything it looks rather soft more than noisy. I would say try to increase shutter speed to reduce camera shake and focus on her eyes. It is better to use one central focus point and recompose, it is the only cross type and reliable focus point with D5100 AF in my experience. If you want your images to be rally smooth and noise free, try Topaz noise reduction plugin. It works wonders with d5100 files. It is very effective with medium-high ISO. Well worth the money, if you do a lot of indoor shooting.

Are we even looking at the same picture ? I cant see any missed focus, the shutter speed is very high - 1/500 sec, enough for sports - and I cant see any softness either.

Are they, I didn't realise that