how do I avoid the grainy look? - DPChallenge Forums

12/21/2002 07:42:58 AM · #1

I bought my camera to experiment and I have found that a lot of my night photos look really bad.
A good example of this is here //www.pbase.com/image/9248526
Any suggestions on what I can do with the camera before taking the picture and also what can be done after the picture to clean it up?

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

12/21/2002 07:50:02 AM · #2

How does it look when you set 1 stop wider aperture and a shutter of 8 seconds?

Konador

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

12/21/2002 07:52:28 AM · #3

I am pretty sure the grain in that shot is caused by the high ISO number which I assumed you used in the low light conditions.

Try setting this lower, but of course this will mean you need to have a longer exposure time to allow enough light in.

To try and clean it up you can use NeatImage which is a free download.

Konador

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

12/21/2002 07:53:40 AM · #4

Oh I just saw that you did use a long exp time and a 100 ISO which is fairly low. but they do still look like ISO noise.

jimmyn4

Canon EOS-7D

12/21/2002 08:02:48 AM · #5

Originally posted by Azrifel:

How does it look when you set 1 stop wider aperture and a shutter of 8 seconds?

I didn't take anothers because it looked good on the LCD and my darn CF card was full

12/21/2002 10:00:42 AM · #6

I think it can avoid long shutter noise in the future for this kind of shots. I don't think F22 was necessary, never trust an LCD and ask Santa a bigger CF-card. :-)

I don't know how to clean up shots. :-(

magnetic9999

Canon EOS-20D

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8D

12/21/2002 10:12:03 AM · #7

dude :)

there's no reason to use such a small aperature on a scene like that. you dont need a really deep depth of field.

try f/5.6 f/4 or even lower. your shutter will drop to more like 1 or 2 sec and you will have MUCHHH less noise :).

if that doesn't work (but it should, because the d30 has a good reputation for low noise), you can use a utility like NEATIMAGE, as Konador mentioned below.

Message edited by author 2002-12-21 10:13:10.

David Ey

Nikon D80

12/21/2002 10:13:24 AM · #8

Maybe Arnit or bamaster will help you. They both have used this camera with low light with great success.
I think the long shutter(therefore smaller aperture) is what hurts you.

yes, what 99 said

Message edited by author 2002-12-21 10:15:07.

stephan

Casio QV-4000

12/21/2002 10:29:55 AM · #9

The F/22 makes this beautiful star-shaped twinkle on the lights. I wouldn't give that up by chosing a too wide aperture.

To me the grain is not that much striking and it's only visible on the plain areas, e.g. the wall and the windows. I would try to change the composition first to get more of the christmas tree and less of the background into the frame.

12/21/2002 12:04:12 PM · #10

Originally posted by stephan:

The F/22 makes this beautiful star-shaped twinkle on the lights. I wouldn't give that up by chosing a too wide aperture.

I am pretty sure that you get the twinkle with F16 or F11 as well.

stephan

Casio QV-4000

12/21/2002 01:05:16 PM · #11

Originally posted by Azrifel:

I am pretty sure that you get the twinkle with F16 or F11 as well.

Yes, but the smaller the aperture the nicer is the effect ;-)

I'm a bit envious, because my smallest aperture is F/8 and with that it won't look that impressive.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR

12/21/2002 01:15:09 PM · #12

Learned something new, I'll remember that on 25 and 26 december. :-)
And fortunately I can set F11. :-Ã¾

myqyl

Nikon D3100

12/21/2002 01:44:11 PM · #13

Originally posted by Azrifel:

Originally posted by stephan:
The F/22 makes this beautiful star-shaped twinkle on the lights. I wouldn't give that up by chosing a too wide aperture.

I am pretty sure that you get the twinkle with F16 or F11 as well.

I could be very wrong about this, but I always thought the twinkle (which I've used often and love) comes from the exposure time, not the aperture... Of course aperture affects shutter time so it may be a moot point...

Am I off base here?

Nikon AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8D

12/21/2002 01:59:34 PM · #14

I have a whole serie of twinkle shots at F11 1 second....
But the same at F4 1/90 (ISO1600) doesn't have the twinkle effect.
Perhaps it is both. The smaller the aperture, the greater the effect with a minimum exposure of x seconds at F8/11/16/22?

stephan

Casio QV-4000

12/21/2002 02:32:08 PM · #15

The twinkle is only affected by the aperture. Also, the smaller the aperture the more "rays" the star-shaped twinkle will have.

It's some kind of lens-effect and/or because of this angular form of the shutter. I don't know exactly the technical background (maybe Google knows) but so it was told to me and I verified that by my own experiments ;-)

I guess it's the same effect that you can see when you squint.

David Ey

Nikon D80

12/21/2002 02:52:37 PM · #16

For twinkle, try placing a mesh over the front of your lens.
A piece of screen wire or stocking works well.
Or, you can buy a filter.

timj351

Sony DSC-F707

12/21/2002 04:08:36 PM · #17

Jimmyn4, I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of seeing if I could improve your image a little bit. Here is the before and after photo. I used Neatimage to remove some of the noise as well as levels adjutments, sharpening and a little cropping. If you disapprove of what I have done I will promply remove the images.

T

jimmyn4

Canon EOS-7D