Noise
May 9, 2019 01:57:44 #
foggypreacher
Loc: Dickinson, Texas
I am still very new to DSLRs and take 30-50 photos a week. They are mainly of volunteer workers rebuilding houses damage by Hurricane Harvey in an area S. E. of Houston. I try to use flash inside because the lighting is very orange of dim while under reconstruction.
The problem I have is too much noise at higher magnifications. The jpgs for social media and a newsletter are OK. I do shoot raw and pp with Lightroom. I know that there is something off with the settings I'm using. I often focus with auto then use those settings. Often they still come out noisey. Any help or suggestions would be apprciated.
The problem I have is too much noise at higher magnifications. The jpgs for social media and a newsletter are OK. I do shoot raw and pp with Lightroom. I know that there is something off with the settings I'm using. I often focus with auto then use those settings. Often they still come out noisey. Any help or suggestions would be apprciated.
May 9, 2019 02:01:55 #
foggypreacher
Loc: Dickinson, Texas
I am not sure why the photo is not showing, but it can be downloaded. Thank you in advance for any helpful offerings.
May 9, 2019 03:34:41 #
Not sure what format you are using , ipad could not open the file. But noise is almost always an ISO issue. How are you setting that? The camera may be boosting it if you are on auto, assuming any flash is just for fill. What camera are you using?
May 9, 2019 05:29:53 #
The photo is not showing because it is a Nikon raw file and as such will not be viewable on many devices.
Try converting it to jpg and upload it again
Try converting it to jpg and upload it again
May 9, 2019 05:53:41 #
The exif data shows an ISO of 800 which is going to give you some noise. This can easily be taken out in PP. If you want less noise out of the camera, you need to reduce ISO and either open up your aperture (decrease f stop) or decrease your shutter speed. It looks like you had your aperture wide open so you only have your shutter speed to work with which might introduce blur if someone is moving.
May 9, 2019 08:55:54 #
Nothing jumped out at me as being "off" when reading exif on the below site, except that no flash was used:
https://www.get-metadata.com/
Perhaps someone else will find an issue hidden within the data.
I found the image to be under-exposed, which would add to noise issue also. But if you want to have the projected words readable, you would edit differently than I did. I did the below to show results of a Nik Collection plug-in called Dfine (for noise removal). I initially lightened the raw in PS Elements' version of Adobe Camera Raw.
You will be dealing with some white balance issues too: you have the overhead lighting competing against the projected lighting. It was difficult to tell what color the wall really is, so I just tried to keep the projected background as white as possible.
Noise be gone!
https://www.get-metadata.com/
Perhaps someone else will find an issue hidden within the data.
I found the image to be under-exposed, which would add to noise issue also. But if you want to have the projected words readable, you would edit differently than I did. I did the below to show results of a Nik Collection plug-in called Dfine (for noise removal). I initially lightened the raw in PS Elements' version of Adobe Camera Raw.
You will be dealing with some white balance issues too: you have the overhead lighting competing against the projected lighting. It was difficult to tell what color the wall really is, so I just tried to keep the projected background as white as possible.
Noise be gone!
May 9, 2019 10:28:36 #
May 9, 2019 10:57:58 #
Ysarex
Loc: St. Louis
Your raw file is underexposed by two stops. If you can't do anything about the actual exposure because of the light level then raise the ISO and that should help reduce the noise some. In other words you took the photo at ISO 800 -- if you can't get more light on the subject and can't increase exposure you should raise the ISO to something like 2400, as much as 3200. You can address the noise in processing. In Lightroom go to the Detail panel and you can reduce the noise there. If LR doesn't do well enough you can consider specialty noise reduction software.
Joe
Joe
May 9, 2019 11:21:02 #
Ysarex wrote:
Oh, the wall is gray! Your raw file is underexposed by two stops. If you... (show quote)
May 9, 2019 14:57:03 #
Since you were shooting at a fairly wide angle (35mm = ~50mm FF equiv) you could have used a faster shutter speed than 1/125. Your D3400 is an entry level camera and ISO 800 is not noise-free for that type of camera. The noise isn't bad and it's easily dealt with, but it needn't be there in the first place.
In the posted pic it's presumably the text on the wall that you were interested in, and it isn't moving, so shutter speed is determined by the fact that the shot was hand-held. Going by the 1/focal length rule you could have gone as slow as 1/50 sec (but it's probably a good idea to stay a bit faster than that, especially since the subject is small text).
In the posted pic it's presumably the text on the wall that you were interested in, and it isn't moving, so shutter speed is determined by the fact that the shot was hand-held. Going by the 1/focal length rule you could have gone as slow as 1/50 sec (but it's probably a good idea to stay a bit faster than that, especially since the subject is small text).
May 9, 2019 16:18:53 #
foggypreacher
Loc: Dickinson, Texas
Thank you all. I will take each of your advise and try to utilize it this week under the same conditions. I have just received a 50mm lens, f/1.4 which I will try out to see if that does better. I will let you know.
May 10, 2019 11:32:53 #
gvarner
Loc: Central Oregon Coast
For indoor flats, assuming you have a TTL flash, use the following setting:
Flash in TTL.
Camera in Manual mode.
ISO 400.
Shutter at 1/200.
Aperture at F4.5.
The high shutter speed will limit the effect of ambient light but won’t affect exposure on the subject. The TTL flash takes care of that. You can increase ISO to get a little more reach from the flash or change the F stop to affect DoF. The TTL flash will adjust its output accordingly.
Flash in TTL.
Camera in Manual mode.
ISO 400.
Shutter at 1/200.
Aperture at F4.5.
The high shutter speed will limit the effect of ambient light but won’t affect exposure on the subject. The TTL flash takes care of that. You can increase ISO to get a little more reach from the flash or change the F stop to affect DoF. The TTL flash will adjust its output accordingly.
May 10, 2019 11:39:30 #
That sounds like good advice for solid subjects, but I suspect that in the above shot it's the projected image on the wall that's the main subject. I suspect that flash would weaken that part of the image. But it's an interesting point about upping the shutter speed to reduce the ambient.
May 10, 2019 21:02:54 #
I don't see where there is a noise issue. The image, once processed, looks quite alright, or at least normal.
--Bob
--Bob
foggypreacher wrote:
I am still very new to DSLRs and take 30-50 photos... (show quote)
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