leonard Loc: essex uk

when taking pics on my nikon D3100 with 70-300mm lens
I use tripod and cable release pics look ok until I fully enlarge them on my monitor.then they look grainy
Have tried 100 iso up to 400 iso and shutter speeds up to 640
Any suggestions please

wtompkins Loc: Northern Michigan

What resolution are they being saved at?

thegrover Loc: Yorba Linda, CA

If you are on a tripod with cable release keep it at ISO 100 and use small aperture (like f/22) and a slow shutter speed. Higher ISO will give more noise (grain) and higher shutter speed will require larger aperture (less depth of field.)
If on a tripod shut off the vibration reduction and make sure your tripod is steady. Hang your camera bag from the hook.

leonard Loc: essex uk

I know this does not sound good from my part
but can you explain what resolution is

leonard Loc: essex uk

Thank you for your info will go and try that out
So nice to get such quick answers

wtompkins Loc: Northern Michigan

Resolution is the number of pixels in the image. If it is saved at a low resolution, such as 72, when enlarged it will be very grainy; but if saved at a higher resolution, 240 or more, there is less grain.

leonard Loc: essex uk

Thank you for the info

leonard Loc: essex uk

Just tried a shot they are a bit dark but camera can lighten them up

leonard Loc: essex uk

My images are taken 237 8.1b that seems the best my camera can do

wtompkins Loc: Northern Michigan

When you look at the image size in your software editing program, what does the resolution say?

leonard Loc: essex uk

dpi 300.3

EugeneS

http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/manuals/kie88335f7869dfuejdl=-cww2/D3100_EN.pdf

Link to online manual for your Camera. Check pages 64-66. Hope to know what yours is set to.

LouT Loc: Maryland

Changing from viewfinder to live view as a final step before shutter release wil also eliminate vibration due to mirror impact.

GHK Loc: The Vale of Eden

It's not too easy to give a full answer without more info.
Digital images can contain noise which will look like grain, but it shouldn't be much of a problem at low ISO; 100 ISO will give the best results but most modern cameras give more than acceptable results at ISOs higher than 400.
Your D3100 can give images up to 4608 x 3072 pixels. Use it at this setting. If you keep if at this size and print at a resolution of 300 dpi you should get a grainless image big enough to give full coverage of an A3 paper. I say this as an illustration, as I assume that your comments relate to monitor viewing.
For this, you should set your image resolution (with 'Resample Image' unticked) to your monitor resolution or thereabouts, say 72 or 96 ppi. You also need to have rulers visible at the sides of the window - if they aren't, go to 'View' and click 'Rulers'.
Now adjust the monitor display percentage so that 1cm on the ruler looks close to a real life 1cm. Only now can you make a proper judgement.
Of course, you will only see a small part of your image on the screen during this check and will need to change the display percentage to see the whole image, but the display will not be suitable for making judgements any longer.
If your image is for projection rather than printing, you will need to resample it down to fit the limits of the projector, usually about 1024 x 768 pixels, thereby destroying a large amount of image information.
The image which you posted is much smaller even than this, so it is not surprising that you find it unsatisfactory.
GHK

Nativeson42 Loc: United Kingdom

Perhaps I'm off the mark here, but I just wanted to rule this out.

Are you sure that it's not the resolution of your monitor that's the cause of this?

I have access to 2 monitors, one low res & one high res. Images which look rubbish on the low res monitor, look great on the higher res monitor!