Comments on: even higher than before …

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:24:10 +0000

And the next image, with an accompanying 100% crop
settings: 1/25th @ f4 @ 1600 ISO.

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:14:27 +0000

settings: 1/100th @ f2.8 @ 2000 ISO

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:13:59 +0000

Here is a 100% crop of this image, to show what the high-ISO noise looks like,
with the crop an area to the left of the bride.

Neil vN

By: Martin Burri

Martin Burri — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:30:54 +0000

Would it help to shoot in RAW and to slightly over-exposure? The exposure could then easily be corrected during post-processing. By reducing the overall exposure in the RAW conversion also the noise would be reduced.

In terms of Signal-to-Noise (SNR) ratio, I think it should help to increase the singal whilst the noise level remains equal. This could be done by over-exposuring the image by decreasing shutter speed. Am I right? Higher SNR gives better images (that’s why we can see noise better in dark areas)

Since the RAW image provides higher bit-resolution per pixel than the final JPEG does, the above procedure should be no problem.

What do you think?

By: Neil

Neil — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:46:27 +0000

Jess … the native ISO is the ISO where the manufacturer feels the best attainable image quality is possible. This is invariably the lowest ISO possible (without going out of range). And this usually means 100 ISO, or 200 ISO.

Neil vN

By: Jess

Jess — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:07:30 +0000

Hi Neil,

I hear a lot about preferring native ISO’s for having the least noise. What makes an ISO native? I only know it means traditional film ISOs, 100, 200, 400, 800, etc. Do you notice this trend?

Jess

By: renee

renee — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:46:29 +0000

Neil, just so I understand, why would the background show noise and not your subject (when using a high ISO)?

By: Neil

Neil — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:16:15 +0000

Renee, that makes perfect sense.

Neil.

By: renee

renee — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:01:08 +0000

HI…I recently learnt that underexposed images will lend itself to more noise…I have always been afraid of going higher than ISO 400. After reading this, at a birthday party one night last week in my house, I raised the ISO to 800 and my shots were extremely sharp! I took extra care in making sure the pix were well exposed.

The only noise I noticed was in the BACKGROUND, ( and only when zoomed in to 100% which we now know doesnt matter) not on peoples faces, they were all sharp. Neil, does this make sense?

By: Harry Simpson

Harry Simpson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:09:44 +0000

I shoot Canon and the Digital Photo Professional software that comes with the camera has a excellent noise reduction function that does wonders and has advanced in the latest version which is 3.4.1.1.