question about noise with example images

[poof]

Here's a shot of Indian Key this morning. I know it's dark, but is it too dark?

Here's a 1:1 crop. How about the noise levels? There was some light room editing, but exposure/brightness levels were not raised.

I want to take higher quality shots in this low light. It's breathtaking in person. I'm hoping there's something I'm not doing right, and it's not just a matter of needing a better camera than an Olympus E-520.

 

[Boomn4x4]

I know it's dark, but is it too dark?

Yes.

Set your exposure by metering off of the darker sky to the right of the island.

 

[poof]

Here's a brightened version. How bout the noise?

 

[Boomn4x4]

Here's a brightened version. How bout the noise?

I live on the shores of Lake Erie and my family has a few homes on a few of the islands there... I am VERY familar with the shot that you are going after. The colors that come out of those sunsets are absolutly breath taking.

Unfortunatly, it isn't the "brightness" that you are missing on. The under exposure has caused a loss of color saturation. I tried adjusting the levels of that shot and some of the saturation, and was able to process some of those breath taking colors back into the image... but I wasn't able to get it to where I wanted it. As you can see, the colors are there... but to bring them out in that photo, I have to REALLY oversaturate, and it makes for an obviously poor image. But it does demonstrate that there is a really good picture in there somewhere.

I would suggest reshooting with a longer shutter speed and try and get some more of those colors. You may also need to work with your white balance a little.

 

[Johnboy2978]

Here's a brightened version. How bout the noise?

I live on the shores of Lake Erie and my family has a few homes on a few of the islands there... I am VERY familar with the shot that you are going after. The colors that come out of those sunsets are absolutly breath taking.

Unfortunatly, it isn't the "brightness" that you are missing on. The under exposure has caused a loss of color saturation. I tried adjusting the levels of that shot and some of the saturation, and was able to process some of those breath taking colors back into the image... but I wasn't able to get it to where I wanted it. As you can see, the colors are there... but to bring them out in that photo, I have to REALLY oversaturate, and it makes for an obviously poor image. But it does demonstrate that there is a really good picture in there somewhere.

I would suggest reshooting with a longer shutter speed and try and get some more of those colors. You may also need to work with your white balance a little.

Waaaaaaaay too much. You want something in between these two I would think

 

[KmH]

The under exposure has caused a loss of color saturation.

Slight under exposure is a technique many landscape photographers use to get more color saturation than they would get by nailing the exposure.

For landscape work bracketing exposures is de riguere.

 

[poof]

Thanks guys. I'm headed back there tomorrow morning to try to get it better. How about the noise question? This was shot at the camera's lowest iso(100). The brighter parts of the shot have a similar amount of noise as the 100% crop in my first post. Is this simply the best my camera can do, or is there something I can do to make it better?