viola_powell Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 <p>Hi, I just got Adobe Lightroom 2 and I also have Photoshop Elements 7. I took some pictures of some people in a big Catholic church and the lighting was fine, but the pictures are pretty grainy. <br>I have a digital Canon Rebel XT, I used my 50 mm 1.8 lens on 1600 ISO and f 1.8 aperture. <br>Has anyone used these 2 to correct the grain? Or should I put the ISO and/or aperture on another setting?<br>Thanks!</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starvy Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 <p>iso 1600 for that tiny sensor camera is bound to create noise problems. are you using noise ninja to get rid of the noise? it is best not to go above iso 800 with the camera for serious shoots.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenkins Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 <p>You will have a slider in Lightroom 2 to reduce the grain or Noise on your pictures as Starvy said ISO 1600 is very high if the light was "fine" in the church, i never go above 800 either.<br> Your F1.8 lens has a very wide opening at 1.8 so it gathers light very easily, all the more reason to lower the ISO, lower the ISO the lesser the noise.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex_jenkins Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 <p>Download the free trial version of Noiseware or Noise Ninja. Either will do the trick and both are easy to use since they can read the EXIF data from your digital camera. Noiseware gives you a generous trial period with full resolution output and no watermarks, so you can evaluate a print.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sattler123 Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 <p>Also google "expose to the right" and learn how to properly expose when using high ISO. The Rebel XT is actually capable of taking very fine images at ISO1600, the secret is in the proper exposure. If you under expose at high ISOs and if you have to bring up the exposure in post processing, then you will introduce lots of noise.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbcooper Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 <p>Viola, you may want to educate yourself about digital noise (types, causes and prevention), and check out the Adobe website. They have great video tutorials on how to use Lightroom, including how to use the noise reduction features in the Develop module. If Lightroom won't do what you want, then you probably want to look at using 3rd party noise reduction software.</p> <p>Generally, the higher the ISO setting, the greater the digital noise potential. Jpg image files will tend to exhibit more noise than RAW during post-processing adjustments. Underexposing and then lightening the image in post will also tend to generate noise, particularly in shadow areas. The best cure is prevention.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phule Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 <p>[[iso 1600 for that tiny sensor camera is bound to create noise problems]]</p> <p>Generalized nonsense.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phule Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 <p>[[iso 1600 for that tiny sensor camera is bound to create noise problems]]</p> <p>This is complete nonsense.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viola_powell Posted June 30, 2009 Author Share Posted June 30, 2009 <p>"Nonsense" - as in "Viola, I can't believe you put your camera on 1600"? or nonsense as in "using 1600 is just fine for this camera"?</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDMvW Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 <p>Hey, all you pups still wet behind the ears. You don't know what <em>grain</em> is unless you were among those hardy pioneers of available-light slide photography who started out with GAF 500, then pushed it to ISO 1000. What you get from a 20D at ISO 3200 looks pretty smooth and noiseless by comparison.</p> <p>(wanders off, shouting "get off my lawn.....")</p> <p>Anyway, my point is that sometimes a noisy or grainy photograph is better than none at all. One should use the tools available and accept the bad along with the good. Indeed, sometimes noise or grain are purposely added to get that gritty, "documentary" affect that we all know from old news photographs shot in the field with Tri-X pushed to hell and gone.....</p> <p>Yes, you can use programs to reduce noise, but you don't need to feel that it is mandatory to do so. Make sure also that the noise you are complaining about is visible in actual prints, as opposed to looking at the computer screen at 100%.</p><div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viola_powell Posted July 1, 2009 Author Share Posted July 1, 2009 <p>Okay, here is what I was talking about, this is mine that I took the other day at the church. I am just not used to seeing so much grain - I mainly take outdoor pictures and I can't see it!!!</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viola_powell Posted July 1, 2009 Author Share Posted July 1, 2009 <p>Okay, here is what I was talking about, this is mine that I took the other day at the church. I am just not used to seeing so much grain - I mainly take outdoor pictures and I can't see it!!!</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viola_powell Posted July 1, 2009 Author Share Posted July 1, 2009 <p>Okay, here is what I was talking about, this is mine that I took the other day at the church. I am just not used to seeing so much grain - I mainly take outdoor pictures and I can't see it!!!</p><div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenkins Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 <p>Viola first thing i have to say is "what noise" at ISO 1600 your camera did a great job, i ran your picture through my noise/grain removal software and there was little if any difference, i sharpened it a tad. By the way this woman could be my Grandmather from the side, uncanny resemblence :)</p><div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewg_ny Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 <p>A lot of folks here worry way too much about noise (myself often included). Slow shutter speed, poor exposure, and missed focus/insufficient depth-of-field ruin a lot more pictures than noise--noise is something to worry about after the other stuff is taken care of.</p> <p>Viola, in this case, your shutter was at 1/250 & f/1.8 so you had a little bit of light to spare with a 50mm lens. You could probably have cut the shutter speed to 1/125 to shoot at ISO 800 instead to reduce sensor noise. Another issue however is that depth-of-field is very shallow and lens performance is perhaps weakest at f/1.8 so some amount of stopping the lens down could also improve this picture. In theory, you could handhold this lens at 1/60 OK without too much danger from camera shake, but it' not clear to me how much your subjects were moving--perhaps you'd start to see too much subject movement.</p> <p>It appears that this picture isn't too bad in this respect but even somewhat older D-SLRs like your Rebel XT can produce useful results at higher sensitivities, but good exposure is critical--you want your histogram hugging the right but not blowing any channels. It's the shadows where noise is most visible and boosting exposure during post-processing is usually very destructive with high-ISO shots. Another thing that can help during post-processing is to raise the black level a bit which can obliterate the noise in the darkest part of the picture. You may find that the picture looks better when printing or after downsizing as opposed to when you zoom in and view pixel-level detail on the screen.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viola_powell Posted July 1, 2009 Author Share Posted July 1, 2009 <p>Thanks everybody for your comments!!!</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viola_powell Posted July 1, 2009 Author Share Posted July 1, 2009 <p>Oh, Simon - what noise/grain removal software did you use? I am looking for one. Anyone out there have some comments on which one they prefer???<br> Thanks!</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenkins Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 <p>Viola is use Nik Software D fine 2.0 but i know a lot of people use Noise Ninja, be aware the little differences in those pictures was due to sharpening just a tad, not noise removal.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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