noise. noISE, NOISE

Chris399

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I encountered an issue over the weekend while out shooting birds. It was quite overcast and I was shooting at ISO 1250, with Nikon 70-200 2.8 set at 5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/250. While processing the image I am noticing a lot of noise, which I feel I should not be experiencing due only to the ISO 1250. Are there other factors that contribute to noise other than ISO settings, ie extreme under/over exposure, over cropping, etc.

All advice is much appreciated.

Chris
 
Seems like it must have been REALLY overcast to need ISO 1250 at 5.6 and still only get a shutter speed of 1/250.

But anyway--I'm no expert, and others will be able to give more detailed answers. But from personal experience, I do know that yes, correcting exposure (especially correcting an underexposed photo), cropping and sharpening will ALL introduce varying levels of noise into a photo.
 
First, shoot raw. That will give you much more ability to edit it in post.

Second, post an example. That way we know more of what you're dealing with.
 
I encountered an issue over the weekend while out shooting birds. It was quite overcast and I was shooting at ISO 1250, with Nikon 70-200 2.8 set at 5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/250. While processing the image I am noticing a lot of noise, which I feel I should not be experiencing due only to the ISO 1250. Are there other factors that contribute to noise other than ISO settings, ie extreme under/over exposure, over cropping, etc.

All advice is much appreciated.

Chris

You didn't say what camera (it makes a difference in this case) and if you were processing from the RAW files.
 


also may depend on what camera you are using as to how it handles low light and ISO settings. when you start cropping to "zoom in" on something, that is done digitally, so the better quality the photo is, the more you can crop with good results. shooting in raw helps as well since you get more digital information in the photo. I dont know if correcting severe under/overexposure in LR or PS "creates" noise, but I do know that it can make the noise more noticeable. especially if you crop zoom as well. hope this helps. some actual experts will have some better explanations and good links.
 
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Iso 1250 is pretty high on the D90. It will give you plenty of noise if your image is underexposed at all. I had a brain fart when I took this snap of a beetle with my d90 at Iso3200. I was shooting without a flash then turned on the flash and fired it with the d90's commander mode, forgetting to adjust down to a reasonable ISO. This image has been worked on to try to remove the noise plus some sharpening.

7300096382_bd3f5f6698_b.jpg
 
Also, we would need to know what is your personal "acceptable" amount of noise. I've personally have come to the point where I just don't care about noise. Although I'm not a pro and am not selling my service to anyone.
 
Underexposure will almost always be noisy! Cropping increases visible noise by making it larger. Over cropping emphasizes that even more.
 
Thanks for the quick Posts -

To answer a few of the posted questions

Yes - Quite a bit of Cropping
Yes - Very overcast and some what drizzling
Yes - The image was underexposed as I followed the Hawk from sky to below the tree line and did not (haven't learned the skill yet) change the exposure while in the process of taking shots.

Shooting in RAW

Still learning Post Processing (using LR4)

Camera is a D4 - so no equipment issue - all mine.

I also feel that I am overcropping which as noted above is adding to my "Noise" effect.

I will post the original image and the processed image tonight.

Thanks


Chris
 
How much underexposed?

How many stops EV did you apply getting from the RAW to the JPG?

On a a D4, at 1250 ISO, I'd expect little / reasonable noise, regardless of cropping.

The only thing I can think of is if you had to push it more then 2 or 3 stops when rendering from the raw.
 
Seems like only yesterday people were complaining about noise at ISO100 :lol:

One thing which contributes to noise which hasn't been mentioned is the content of a picture. If you take a picture of a cement sidewalk you're unlikely to notice any noise even if it's there. If however you use 200mm f/2.8 and your picture in large part has narrow depth of field and creamy smooth bokeh then the noise will immediately be visible.
 
Noob here...but If it's noise in the background, then you can also edit the pic. Make 2 layers of the same image. Gaussian blur the front layer. Then "soft erase" over the front layer, exposing the background layer which is still sharp, etc. Only soft erase over the section you want to keep in main focus. Cropping doesn't add more noise, but it will make the noise more obvious like the others have said...especially if you're zooming/increasing resolution, etc.
 
Embrace the noise. It never hurt anyone.
 
Seems like only yesterday people were complaining about noise at ISO100 :lol:

One thing which contributes to noise which hasn't been mentioned is the content of a picture. If you take a picture of a cement sidewalk you're unlikely to notice any noise even if it's there. If however you use 200mm f/2.8 and your picture in large part has narrow depth of field and creamy smooth bokeh then the noise will immediately be visible.
:lmao:
Yeah no kidding huh?
What I see as noise now is noting like the early days when it was Chroma noise and you had to actually clone out RBG specks out of photos at 400ISO. The Luminance noise has more the appearance of grain over noise. People complaining about noise at 1250 must have never shot high speed film. You should go try that sometime and then come back and complain. Will you get noise at 1250? Sure will especially if you do not nail the exposure, and guess what it is a part of the game.
 

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