Grainy pics: I'm having trouble with grainy pics. I have a Nikon d5000 and it does not seem to do well in low light situations with grainyness. (Did I spell that right). I am an...

billybaseball Loc: Bel Air MD

I'm having trouble with grainy pics. I have a Nikon d5000 and it does not seem to do well in low light situations with grainyness. (Did I spell that right). I am an amateur but believe I know what I am doing. I experiment with different iso settings and tweak the exposure triangle but even when properly exposed if I didn't use a flash and/or am in low light situations the photos seem grainy. They are in focus and properly exposed but grainy. Is this the limits of the camera or am I doing something wrong? Anyone familiar with the d5000 please let me know. Should I post some pics for critique?

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Posting images with the "Store Original" checked could be helpful, but offhand, if you have raised the ISO, there is a point at which things will get noise/grainey. That's just the way it is. "Proper Exposure" at a high ISO does not do away with the noise.

billybaseball Loc: Bel Air MD

So I just popped off about 50 indoor flash shots on manual trying to isolate the iso settings and it looks to me like when I get up to 800 iso it is ok, 1000 it starts to get grainy and 1250 and up is grainy. Does this sound about right to you guys for this camera? (Nikon D5000) Anyone have comments or know if the 5100, or 5200, or 7000 are better at the higher iso's?

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

Youtube your camera + tutorials

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

billybaseball wrote:

So I just popped off about 50 indoor flash shots on manual trying to isolate the iso settings and it looks to me like when I get up to 800 iso it is ok, 1000 it starts to get grainy and 1250 and up is grainy. Does this sound about right to you guys for this camera? (Nikon D5000) Anyone have comments or know if the 5100, or 5200, or 7000 are better at the higher iso's?

The D7000 is better. very good at 1600 and acceptable at 3200 if some noise reduction is used. Even 6400 is usable, if a bit crunchy.

billybaseball Loc: Bel Air MD

Thanks for the info Cap. I think I can set my camera to not go above certain iso settings so maybe I'll do that for when I'm not shooting in manual and see if I get some better shots.

ohallboyz Loc: Boston, MA

Definitely post some pics and your settings but watch your ISO when you are shooting. This is why I shoot manual, so I know exactly what settings I am using.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

billybaseball wrote:

So I just popped off about 50 indoor flash shots on manual trying to isolate the iso settings and it looks to me like when I get up to 800 iso it is ok, 1000 it starts to get grainy and 1250 and up is grainy. Does this sound about right to you guys for this camera? (Nikon D5000) Anyone have comments or know if the 5100, or 5200, or 7000 are better at the higher iso's?

I have a Sony Alpha 55 and that's precisely what I get too. I have been experimenting with ISO when shooting real estate interiors and 400 is what I use most. As soon as I hit 800, a little noise starts coming in and is unattractive when I crop a shot or must increase exposure in post editing because I didn't have enough flash power for a large room. Anything above 800 is unacceptable. Although these dSLRs are suppose to have extended abilities into the ISO 16,000 range I don't know how you would use it with extreme digital noise, even when using the high ISO noise reduction of the camera.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

Generally anything above 800 ISO will start to get grainy on DX format cameras. FX format can go a little higher on ISO before the noise comes in.

Brian in Whitby Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada

Another factor is exposure, if your image is under exposed, and then lightened in PP, the grain will appear like magic.
This is another case when,"Expose to the right." is good advice.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Brian in Whitby wrote:

Another factor is exposure, if your image is under exposed, and then lightened in PP, the grain will appear like magic.
This is another case when,"Expose to the right." is good advice.

:thumbup: Until I recently got my D7000, my D200 was my primary. Talk about grain. Anything beyond ISO 400 looked like a sand sculpture. I'm still getting used to being able to raise the ISO to 800+, it opens up a whole new world of options. I was the first one to yank the chains of people that were constantly upgrading. Once my backup D70 started having issues, I HAD to get a back up for weddings. Now, I am looking forward to another D7000 as a back up. GREAT camera.

That being said, Brian has it correct, when you have a camera that doesn't do well in low light, the absolute worst thing you can do is under expose. When in doubt, over expose a bit in RAW and then recover the highlights.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

bkyser wrote:

quote=Brian in Whitby Another factor is exposure,... (show quote)

When you overexpose the highlights, you lose data in the highlights that is unrecoverable. So, be careful on overexposing. You can pick up shadow detail because there is information in that shadow detail. There is no detail in blown out highlights.

Brian in Whitby Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada

To prevent over exposure when exposing to the right, learn to use the histogram display. You camera may also have a feature that marks areas of the photo that are "blown out."