Why are my pictures so noisy?!

[metro2]

But if I am spotmetering on my subject (for example, my son's face) and its at 0, then it should give me correct exposure for his face. Right?

Strictly speaking that only establishes a zone 5 value for the exposure. The face could be brightly lit or in shadow as could other aspects of the scene.

 

[Overread]

This statement caught my eye

I shoot in Raw. I love the freedom it gives me PP to fiddle with my exposure/white balance ect...

This is probably where your problem lies, you think you have more freedom than you actually have and your trying to up the exposure on an underexposed shot
that is beyond saving

Aye, but if you tweak a photo in RAW mode and then save and export it to an image editor program the photo shouldn't gain noise between leaving the RAW conversion and entering the image editing program - which is what the OP was describing. Rather than inherent noise from the original RAW in the RAW processing software.

 

[Rebekah5280]

this is all basic stuff that is available in a single book ratehr than asking questions.
buy a book on exposure

I have books, and am in the middle of classes. I still have questions.
It may be basic information to you, which is why your the professional and I am the beginner... right? If you dont want to help me, then don't respond to my questions.

I don't want to bother anyone if they don't want to be bothered, which is why I post questions on a forum, where participation is voluntary. There are a lot of people who have and offer information for me to improve.

My question was not about exposure, it was about why my pictures were gaining noise when transferring between two programs. And I am now working with a different program which seems to have solved my "noise" issues.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

 

[Rebekah5280]

You might be surprised that **some** Nikon software will by default, save even 12 Megapixel original .NEF images as VERY highly-compressed JPEG files, with absolutely ridiculous file sizes like 36k and 48k--and the images will also look QUITE good when shrunk to screen size (like 800 pixels tall) and viewed at their converted display size. So, check the compression level settings and display size for ViewNX, and see what it is set to.

So I opened a file in ViewNX, and it shows me (for example)

File size 19.8MB Image quality: Compressed RAW (12-bit)

I was under the impression that RAW was uncompressed. Do you know why its telling me its "Compressed" RAW?

 

[metro2]

Rebekah, if you are using spot metering, learn to become fluent with the zone system of exposure.

 

[Rebekah5280]

Thank you Metro2. I have begun to read up a little on it since your post, and I think the information is really going to help me improve my photography.

Seriously, I'm beginning to question spending all that money on the photography class I took... seems like everything he suggested I do is commpletely wrong for what I'm trying to achieve!! (shoot at 100 ISO, use spot metering, shoot a little underexposed, ect...)

However, I did come out of the class confident in shooting in manual and knowing how to set my white balance, so I'll call it a wash I guess.