D7000 Noise

[diane_madura]

<p>I have a D7000. I haven't had a chance to use it much yet, but I find that I am getting noise where I believe I wouldn't have had I used my D90 (which I no longer have unfortunately). I used my D90 a lot more than I've used the D7000, so the D7000 is still new to me. <br>

I had only seconds to get this photo, so I didn't have a lot of time to make changes to my settings. I was more concerned about using a fast shutter speed since I didn't have a tripod with me. I quickly changed to settings I knew would give me a fast shutter speed. I try to stay with ISO 100 but used ISO 320 since I didn't have a lot of time to practice. In retrospect, I probably would have been fine with ISO 100, but I wanted to be safe rather than sorry. I had auto bracketed the shots and used the best frame of the three where I only had to lightened the photo a little bit in the mid range. Highlights were fine. I don't think you can see the noise in my 100% sample, but when it is printed at 8.5 X 11, the noise is very visible in the gray underside of the aircraft.<br>

In post-processing, I opened it in Capture NX2, changed to a TIFF, then worked on it in Photoshop as a TIFF. I used Photo Kit Sharpener to capture sharpen it, added "local contrast enhancement," then sharpened it for output. The noise was not noticeable until I sharpened it.<br>

This example is not the first time I have had this noise. My question is, is it just because the subject of the photograph exceeded the range of the sensor?</p><div></div>

[photo5]

<p>Adding sharpening will most certainly create some noise that wouldn't have been noticeable otherwise. If I ever add sharpening, I use a gently unsharp mask filter in Photoshop, and never the Sharpen filter, as it is much more harsh and does create noise which isn't normally necessary in an image from a digital camera. I can't see a problem in the image you've posted, generally you will see some noise or "grain" in the shadows in most photos from DX format cameras. Shooting RAW and careful processing will help in these situations.</p>

[diane_madura]

<p>Thanks for your response. I know you cannot see it here, even though it's at 100%. It "screams" noise on the print. I used unsharp mask for local contrast enhancement. I could understand if the shadows were dark, but you can see the gray is not very dark. I only shoot raw.</p>

[StuartMoxham]

<p>No noise in this 100% crop how can there be visible noise in an 8.5 x 11 inch print. Something seems wrong. I've printed many images at that size that show noise in the 100% crop but the prints look very good and the noise is barely visible. What printer are you using. Could the problem be with the printer. One other question are you printing the whole frame or are you heavily croping it before printing.</p>

[diane_madura]

<p>Interesting point, Stuart. Noise disappeared when I reduced the sample to 72 ppi in order to post it. Noise is quite visible on my monitor when original is enlarged to 100%. Perhaps I should scan the photo, then post it. Using an Epson R1800. Noise on the red, blue and gray areas of the photo are there when viewed on the monitor. Not very noticeable on the red and blue on the print but quite noticeable on the gray on the print. Let's see if this shows the noise better. This time I kept it at 300 ppi.</p><div></div>

[diane_madura]

<p>Very little cropping.</p>

[steven_p]

<p>It may be a case that the camera metered the plane's whites and bright sky and under exposed the shadow detail, giving you the chunky stuff. The other way around would have blown out the highlights.</p>

[diane_madura]

<p>The original raw file has, pretty much, a perfect histogram. I just looked it up again to be sure. Virtually no blown highlights, and darks end at the lower left hand corner. I would copy and paste it here, but I don't know how to. That is why I am so perplexed. If it was underexposed, I would understand, but it is not. </p>

[StuartMoxham]

<p>Now it is pretty funky looking. Are you doing much sharpening. The new upload looks like quite a lot of sharpening has been done. Maybe try to sharpen just to the point before the noise is very visible.</p>

[diane_madura]

<p>I will try that. However, then, the print will not be very sharp. That is why I sharpened it in the first place. I detest prints that are oversharpened. If you saw the print, you would not say it is oversharpened. No halos. I guess I will just try it all over again.</p>

[jamie_mahoney]

<p>On my D90... I found the default setting for Active D-Lighting was on... and this seemed to add noise to many of my pictures early on. Turning off this feature helped greatly. I don't own a D7000, but if it has this feature, you might try turning it off.</p>

[jay_poel]

<p>Changing the PPI should not effect how it is displayed - it is a measurement used for the printing. Without resampling an image - zooming to 100% will always be the same. PPI is based on the number of pixels in relation to the print output (4x6, 8x10 etc.)</p>

<p>How about posting a link to the original file so we can open it up and see what we can do with it? Was it a .NEF or .JPG?</p>

[elliot1]

<p>The problem appears not to be noise - rather you appear to be creating 'texture' from incorrect/over sharpening.</p>

[jenkins]

<p>Elliot is right it is over sharpened by a long shot.</p>

[eric_arnold]

<blockquote>

<p>The noise was not noticeable until I sharpened it.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>bingo.</p>

 

[fotolopithecus]

<p>To your original point the D90 has "very slightly" better noise figures at low iso's, but I doubt you could visually discern the difference. Of course the d7000 has less noise at 100iso, if only because the D90's base is 200iso.<br>

Long story short I think something else is at work here if your certain your D90 would have done better in the same circumstance. Bruce</p>

[Jerry_]

<p>It might be better to just back away from your enlargement and view the entire photo from five or six feet distance. The *eye-exam* of a shadow area on part of a aircraft is never going to be perfect. You use the camera to capture the flying aircraft and get the best overall exposure: you may never get perfect (well-lighted areas) and perfect shadow details.</p>

<p>Does your version of Photoshop have the Smart Sharpen function? You might try Smart Sharpen at 17 or 18 percent, and at .8 or .9, and see if that helps any.</p>

<p> </p>

[michael_b10]

<p>I use Lightroom, and am finding that I need to add more noise reduction on D7000 files than on those from my D90 - which i think may be as much a function of the raw conversion as anything. (I also find that in perfectly exposed shots, there is noticeable noise in even faint shadows at ISOs as low as 200 and 400). I'm still experimenting with hitting the ideal balance between NR and sharpening but in the end, by balancing the sliders, I'm getting to the point where i can get cleaner images with as much or more detail from the D7000 than from the D90. So maybe it's a matter of re-learning post-processing settings for the new camera?</p>

[Karim Ghantous]

<p>IMO the image definitely is way over-sharpened (as others have pointed out). I mean, every bit of the image that isn't close to white is obviously affected. That includes the portion of blue sky visible in the top-right corner.</p>