This past Saturday, I took this shot during a heavily overcast evening with low clouds. I used a Nikon D 90, a Sigma 70 -300 lens, and tripod. The cameral was set on a timer to release the sudder.
I used apeture priority with 400 ISO. What could I have done differently to get a better, less noisy picture.
By the Way, this is my processed version.
Thanks for checking this out for me.
Capital in the Mist
If you post the original we could help more easily.
Please repost and click the "store original" button when you do.
Thanks, original on the way.
Original_Capital in the Mist
My guess is that it's not noise but light refraction...the mist/fog reflecting the light.
I put it through Lightroom's noise reduction and that helped a lot.
The noise is due to under exposition of the dark area (normal) as well as the lack of focus.
Thanks rapvich. I don't have lightroom perhaps I should look into it. It was kind of you to take the time.
English Wolf, I really made an effort to keep the camera still. Do you suggest that my autofocus is not doing the job for me? My vision is not good enough to focus on my own.
Thanks for your observation.
English_Wolf wrote:
The noise is due to under exposition of the dark area (normal) as well as the lack of focus.
You have hit upon a something that is a real problem for me. I like dark, low key, pictures. Could you lead me to a tutorial that can help me achieve a dark scene without the grain?
Thanks
This should work for you:
- Use a tripod or at least a mono-pod as you shoot at very low speed 1/8.
- Exposure: Use manual exposure to get the right settings for the picture.
- Focusing: Select a brighter area that you want in focus*. Have the auto focus do it's job. Depress the shutter half way and keep it half depressed. If you use 3D tracking, disable that first.
- Compose your picture and depress the second half.
Most DSLR have this 'shutter feature'.
When you still have too much noise, use the blur ONLY in the dark/diffuse areas as the blur is nothing more than a gimmick that removes sharpness over all so PP with care.
* Auto-focus works better in bright areas. Many times when a picture is not in focus it is because there is a brighter area in the picture and the auto focus locks onto that area.
NOTE: Photo Element is a superior editor than Lightroom. It also has the blur feature and it can be selectively applied by using layers and/or masks.
English Wolf: Great suggestions. I think the selective blur would work very well. I use the selective tool quite a lot. The tripod I was using was a smaller one that I use for travel and I don't trust it.
Again, thank you for the detailed response and explainations. They will be used.
Cawanua
ftpectim: are you referring to my PP or rpavich's PP? All is good either way. I am learning from this brave foot forward.
I have a problem with my eyes in that I see double all the time so I depend on my autofocus. My camera, Nikon D7000, gives me the option to set my focal point where I want it by moving it around in the view finder. Not sure what camera you have or if your camera can do this. For me, it is the only way I can get the focus I need.
Lucian
Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio
One of the best noise reduction software programmes out there is Topaz Denoise and it is affordable and offers free upgrades, look into it.
Bekkie wrote:
I have a problem with my eyes in that I see double all the time so I depend on my autofocus. My camera, Nikon D7000, gives me the option to set my focal point where I want it by moving it around in the view finder. Not sure what camera you have or if your camera can do this. For me, it is the only way I can get the focus I need.
Hi Bekkie, I have the Nikon D 90 and it has the same function of moving the focus point around that you mentioned. I find it this application not very fine tuned on my camera. I have to push the arrows too many times to get what I want and some times I just give up.
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