help for photos accidently shot in 3200 ISO??

[aleisha_hey]

<p>I need some massive help. Recently I shot a wedding completely on 3200 ISO, I know I can see you all shaking your heads! I shook mine also (not to mention the tears) after I finally realised why my camera wouldnt expose prpoerly in some conditions on the day.<br>

So my question is: Is there anyway I can reduce the effects of the grain in the photos to make them look semi great? or does anyone have any advice on how to fix this major problem I have?<br>

I have CS3, clearly I am no pro, but I am quick at picking things up if there is enough detail in the answer...that is if there is a solution to this problem.<br>

Thanks Aleisha</p>

[herma]

<p>Did you atleast shoot RAW?</p>

[aleisha_hey]

<p>nope!</p>

 

[john_macpherson]

<p>Well you can remove some of the grain/noise but it might be at the expense of some fine detail. Noise Ninja is a pretty good option if you really need to go down this route: http://www.picturecode.com/</p>

[herma]

<p>Ok, there is always great B&W. My 2nd shooter used my backup camera for an evening wedding with the polarizing filter on. Talk about sucky pictures. However, the B&W creative settings in LR are lovely.</p>

<p>Ok. This must suck! But really, PS is "too complicated" for me. So I use LR 3, which has a lot of creative B&W settings. If the exposures really stink, you must sell the artistic B&W, the noise reduction in LR is truly amazing...Your other option is just come clean. .</p>

[markonestudios]

Aleisha,

<p>I will desist from shaking the stick at you as I'm sure you've learnt a valuable lesson. Now, on to solutions... if you shot the entire day at that ISO, then I would imagine that covers a pretty wide range of lighting conditions. Possibly not all of the photos will be blown out and then you won't have to convert all of them to B&W.

<p>I would come clean in any case. Better to manage the client's expectations early enough. If you can post a couple of samples, that will help us know what you're working with...

[markonestudios]

One more thing I forgot to mention: Post this in the wedding forum, or better still, ask the forum moderator to move it for you.

[aleisha_hey]

<p>Thanks for the help so far everyone.<br>

I didnt post it in the wedding forum as I wasnt sure if that was for post exposure help. But i will look at doing this also. <br>

Thank you for not shaking the stick at me too :) I have well and truly already done that myself. FYI I couldnt figure out the prob all day at the wedding the next weekend while I was doing footy photos I couldnt expose and immediatley thought to check the ISO...so I can only put it down to total brain malfunction at the wedding!<br>

I am a bit worried about the black and white artistic look as I think if it were a landscape that would be ok, but on skin I am not so sure. Even if it had of been 1600 ISO I am sure the quality would be better.<br>

I will have a look at posting a couple of pics for you. You are right some of them are passable but its the clothes that it shows in. I am not coming clean...just yet. I am hoping someone on hear is so super smart they will save my bacon.<br>

I have a friend who uses LR3 so I will go to him and ask him what he can do.<br>

But in the mean time carry on with the great help.<br>

Isnt there a way to turn JPEGS into RAW images? I am sure I have heard of this??<br>

Thanks</p>

[herma]

<p>No, sorry Aleisha, RAW is RAW and Jpeg is Jpeg. Bacon saving can only go so far. Again, the noise reduction in LR3 is quite remarkable. BTW, what camera did you use. Some are better then others.</p>

[daverhaas]

<p>Aleisha -</p>

<p>Get yourself a copy of Noiseware Pro - it's a photoshop plug-in. IMHO much easier to use and better than lightroom. </p>

<p>You don't mention what body you used - but with a D200 I can get good prints at 2000 ISO plus and D300 at 3200 plus. </p>

<p>Also - you can do an open as Camera Raw in Photoshop. that will give you a little bit more control over things - but it won't bring back things that aren't there. </p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[aleisha_hey]

<p>Its a canon 50D. I know its not the greatest body but it has done the trick for me so far.Never had any issues with my photography before.<br>

I am attaching a copuple of pics for you to all hang your heads at...Go easy.</p><div></div>

[aleisha_hey]

<p>Sorry that was a bit too large this should be easier to load</p><div></div>

[Dave Luttmann]

<p>Try out the Neat Image software package. Works very well. I find I can eliminate at least half the luma noise and 3/4 the chroma noise without losing much in the way of detail. For some that have too much banding, try a B&W conversion. Add some mono-Gaussian noise, and then do a guassian blur on the noise of between .2 and .3 pixel to soften the noise layer and make it more B&W film like. It will hide the color noise and most of the banding.</p>

<p>Needless to say, you're going to be in front of the computer for a while.</p>

[alan_goldhammer]

<p>LIghtroom 3 has a new noise reducing algorithm that could help out here. I just finished watching a <a href="http://luminous-landscape.com/videos/lr3.shtml">video tutorial</a> of how a picture shot at ISO 12,800 was cleaned up pretty nicely. Certainly this will help you clean these images up considerably without having to go the B&W route. I've just started to migrate everything to LR 3 and though I don't normally shoot at such a high ISO (I pretty much only go up to 800 with my Nikon D300 with landscape work), the results show me that marked improvements have been made.</p>

[mark_sirota1]

<p>Much of the magic of LR and Camera Raw's new noise reduction is in the demosaic phase -- you won't see such massive improvement in JPEGs. You'll still get some, but there's less wow factor for JPEGs than for raw files.</p>

[kts]

<p>Topaz Denoise is one of the best i've tried at noise reduction and also a free 30 day trial if you snag it on the 1st of the month<br>

<a href="http://www.topazlabs.com/denoise/">http://www.topazlabs.com/denoise/</a><br /><br /></p>

[andre_prefontaine]

<p>Hi Aleisha sorry have a look i processed your image 5min photoshop work a bit soft but still acceptable let me know what you think!</p>

<p>Andre</p><div></div>

[rae_wells]

<p>Hi Aleisha. There's definitely some good advice in this thread. To make you feel a little better, I just wanted to note that most folks aren't obsessively looking at images all day every day like we are. Once you work on them, if the composition is good and relevant moments were nicely captured, your clients will probably be very pleased. Good luck! </p>

[JRCrowe]

<p>Hi Aleisha here are a couple done in Lightroom 3 just as an example. The first one has noise reduction and some sharpening applied to restore some detail. The second is just noise reduction alone. With lightroom you can sync all the images with just noise reduction as the only action applied which can save a lot of time.</p><div></div>

[JRCrowe]

<p>Noise reduction only.</p><div></div>

[alexandrutunschi]

<p>You should try NIK's DFine 2 plug-in. It's amazing. You can even set jPEG artifact reduction, preserve details and de-banding. Also, remember that if you do NR, printing the photos the noise won't show. A.</p>

[martin_engineer]

<p>John Crowe's edit looks pretty good. If you have the time and patience you could get rid of the chroma noise in the guys suit using Photoshop. In the high ISO range, I find that most noise appears in the shadows and dark areas like a tux. The wedding dress has almost no noise that I can see.<br>

I think that once you get the prints, they'll look better in your hand than on your computer screen.</p>

 

[esteve]

<p>I've played a bit (that is, changing a couple of parameters) in the GIMP with GREYCstoration plugin. Pretty good. I'm attatching the result. Since it's free, you'll just loose time trying it.<br>

Regards,<br /> Esteve</p><div></div>

[alexandrutunschi]

<p>Nik Software DFine 2 + some tweaks...</p><div></div>

[gr]

<p>I once shot pre ceremony photos for somebody I know. It was an Indian wedding and part of the pre-ceremony took place at the bride's house out in the open under a strong sun. I was shooting Canon Powershot G5 and accidentally kept the ISO at 400 from aprevious shoot. That's the background of this story.<br>

Neatimage came to my rescue and did not hear any complain. Knowing what I know now, I would use either Neat Image or Define2 from Nik software.<br>

If you do use Neat Image, search the web for noise profiles for 50D and 3200 ISO. Load the profile and see what result you get. If you use Define2 then just let it automatically measure and reduce the noise and see if you like it. I wouldn't worry too much about the softness as you can duplicate the layer and use Highpass filter (my preferred setting is between 4 and 5) and play with the opacity. The blending mode I play with is hard light and soft light. Define2 is free for 15 days and no trial watermark on your photos.<br>

Lots of great advice have been given by folks here and frankly speaking I am not seeing any reason to worry too much. I liked the photo you posted.<br>

Hope this helps.</p>