Freeze Motion with Less Noise Indoors

DebBG

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Hi There!

I am beginning into sports photography with a Nikon d3200. I’ve been taking photos in indoor wrestling meets, using my 70-200mm f2.8 lens. My preference has been using a f2.8 for a shallow depth of field (blur background), a minimum shutter speed of 500 to freeze the motion and the ISO usually is in automatic. Because of the low condition of light, my ISO is going into 6400 or higher (few exceptions into 3200) giving a final photo with a lot of noise. Any advice on how I could solve this to get photos with less noise? Tks!
 
Hello and welcome. There is software available to help with your noise problem, do a google search.. :encouragement:
 
The D3200 is simply not a good low-light camera, simple as that. Denoise software on the computer is pretty amazing, though, but the camera itself isn't going to help you here.
 
If you use Lightroom, the new AI noise reduction is AMAZING!!! I do marketing photos for schools and a lot of times, have to use very low light and this has saved many photos for me!
 
As others have stated, the camera is the limiting factor here. It's an older camera that was not known for its low light performance. My advise is set a minimum acceptable shutter speed and get the shot. Bump the ISO to where it needs to be, or underexpose the shot and fix the exposure in post. Either way, you're looking at a lot of noise.

For comparison, I shoot a lot of indoor and nighttime sports with my Z6II and I am commonly at ISO 6400 or even 12800, also shooting with a 70-200 f/2.8.
 
underexpose the shot and fix the exposure in post.

While I normally agree with Adam, I think he missed the mark here. To minimize noise you first have to understand what and how noise occurs. Digital Camera Image Noise: Concept and Types Of the three major types, (Random, Fixed Pattern & Banding), Random is all around us, in every scene, and the one most easily minimized in camera by making sure you fully expose the sensor especially at higher ISOs. Doing so will increase the signal to noise ratio, minimizing the visibility of Radom noise. If you under expose your SNR drops, with less or no signal to record, the sensor picks up more Random noise, when you boost the exposure post, you're amplifying that excess noise even more.
 

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