Fuji S9500; how to reduce noise in RAW pictures

Hi,

I see you've received quite a lot of advice already so will try not to repeat it.

One of the great advantages of digital is that you can take as many shots as you like & it costs you nothing. I would recommend learning how to use "manual" mode. My own personal "workflow" for taking landscapes is:

Set iso to lowest,
small aperture (I own a prosumer too so F5.6 on mine)
set "spot metering" - sometimes in high contrast shots the "evaluative / average" metering modes can cause underexposure
in "aperture priority" mode I meter the different areas of the shot & make a mental note
change to "manual" mode, make sure apertures at F5.6 and then I take a series of shots, all at different shutter speeds.

when you get back to the PC you'll pretty much always find that the shot with the least noise is the one longest exposure.

hope this helps

simon
 
Separate from noise, underexposure loses tonal resolution. Digital doesn't see light the way our eyes or film does. Most of the data is in the highlights. Underexposure of a single stop loses half of the total tonal range. 2 stops absolutely kills your tonal range. My suggestion is to expose for the highlights. Overexposure is much better than underexposure. The tricky part is making sure you don't blow out any highlights (have the area go to pure white).
 
THNX, I already only use manual modea for the past few weeks and ever since I got the camera and read about ISO it hasn't changed from ISO 80. The problem now is it's not really weather to get out and start shooting, so I'm waiting for the spring to come (or winter without rain/wind, whichever comes first) and just shoot what I can inside the house or from an open window quickly if it's not raining.

I'll also put the meter on spot, I had it on multi all the time before. I just try to take multiple shots everytime, usually from a little underexposed to very overexposed just to be sure (I have a 2GB card which seems enough for now).
 
On a prosumer using an EVF and reading the histogram the metering mode is largely incidental. Everything you need to know is in the histogram and you can see the effect the exposure compensation is having on the image in the EVF, as well as the histogram. Still, best not fall into bad habits :) Don't know that grey card but seems cheap enough. Go for it :)
 
Just a quick mention on "in-camera" live histograms. They are a great tool & very helpful as a guide but are not 100% accurate - it's still possible to blow the highlights even though on the histogram the shot might appear o.k. Bracketing, manually or automatically is a good idea, as is using RAW which gives you that extra little "safety net"

simon
 
I think the histogram is not that helpfull since it's not really live (on my camera). Changing shutterspeed or aperture doesn't change anything to the 'live' histogram...
 
I think the histogram is not that helpfull since it's not really live (on my camera). Changing shutterspeed or aperture doesn't change anything to the 'live' histogram...


Hmmm,

are you sure - it should change constantly as you "move around" a scene or change the aperture / shutterspeed settings. Perhaps it needs a special menu selection ?? Sorry not fully familiar with the S9500, I own a KM A200 which is a very similiar camera - I use the "live" histogram all the time

simon
 
I'm sure, when moving around the histogram changes, but changing aperture from F2.8 to F11 doesn't make any difference, so doesn't changing shutterspeed from 1/4000 to 30".

BTW, I like the pictures on your site!
 
I think the histogram is not that helpfull since it's not really live (on my camera). Changing shutterspeed or aperture doesn't change anything to the 'live' histogram...

It doesn't when your in manual mode but will when your in Av or Tv mode.

The s9500 histogram is a brightness only one so it is possible to over expose certain colours. Simonkit's suggestion of bracketing is a very good one :)
 
What's the AV and TV-mode, can't find them on the wheel. When taking my time to take a picture from a tripod I always shoot several pictures with different exposures to make sure there's one right. But when shooting from hand or something like that it's usually just getting exposure as right as I think I can get and shoot.

I'm going to a car show by the end of march, I hope I'll be able to get some nice pictures there, in other words, I need to be prepared than, all the shinyness of the cars with spotlight on them, often too far away to use a flash, it will be tricky... :mrgreen:
 
When taking my time to take a picture from a tripod I always shoot several pictures with different exposures to make sure there's one right. But when shooting from hand or something like that it's usually just getting exposure as right as I think I can get and shoot.

If you are shooting landscapes or in situations where you have some time you really should use to the same technique as on the tripod - if you rely on one perfectly exposed shot you may be often disappointed.

It's obviously more difficult (or impossible) to do this when shooting sports/moving objects etc particularly if using RAW as it's one of the downsides of these "prosumers", the buffer fills quickly & it's a few seconds wait for the next shot. This is one of the occasions when shooting JPG in combination with "automatic bracketing" is probably a better choice

simon
 

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