Do You Hear What I Hear?

OK, I stand to be corrected. Ever since I got my digi SLR, I have bragged about shooting with my ISO set to 1600 as the have the ability to shoot in low light settings. Fine. I have also been known to insist that I have never noticed the "noise" of which everyone keeps telling me about when you shoot at 1600. Because I never had. Until now.

Noise in digital images is like grain is to images shot on film. 1600 speed film (of which I used to use here and again) is grainy and I dig it. Now, when it came to digital images, I never noticed this noise (or grain) that everyone made such a big deal about so I just kept on doing my thing. I was under the impression that perhaps the reason I never noticed was that I don't blow images up very large. Or maybe I wasn't that discerning or something. This is where I was mistaken.

The other afternoon we had some friends over and I was shooting photos of all the kids in our pretty dark living room. When I got the prints back (4X6s) I was shocked at all the visible noise I noticed. Eeee gads! It was only obvious in the dark areas and in what seemed to be the more underexposed of the shots. But, it was very evident. And I will admit, it's the first time I have ever even seen it in my images. It doesn't look like grain really, as in the kind you see in film. It doesn't have an artsy or nostalgic feel to it. It's more like a breaking down of the information of the image itself. I like grain. But I know now, I don't like noise.

Will I switch my ISO habit to something less fast? Um, not always but you better beleive I am going to start making mental notes and doing some switching up of some things to compare images with one another. The kind of stuff I always encourage you all to do. Trail and error. I don't ever want to be one of those "I know everything" kind of gals. On the contrary. The beauty of writing this blog has been that I have and am continuing to learn with all of you as I go. If you have any input or insight into the noise factor, please share. I'm still coming to terms with the fact that this is a new discovery for me. Who knew? Well, I guess a lot of people did. I just wasn't listening to all the noise.

Comments

[Divrchk]

Hmmm. Can you post one of the images from that shoot as an example?

[Christina]

I am still shooting with a P&S and it tends to give a lot of noise even at low ISOs. It's so frustrating to me, but a few weeks ago a friend referred me to a free program that helps SO much! It's not as good as if the noise wasn't there to start with, but it has helped me to salvage images that I otherwise would have had to trash. The best part? The community version is free, and it works great! Just run your picture through this program and the noise all but disappears.

http://www.imagenomic.com/download.aspx

[Jen]

Thanks for this post, Tracey, and for your honesty, which will help us to learn, too. Not every person who wrote a photo blog would be that honest. But it doesn't surprise me because that's just the kind of person you are ;-) You Rock!!

I definitely notice noise when I am all the way up at 1600. So I have learned recently, not all digi cameras necessarily produce more noise the higher you goon ISO. Someone told me the Canon 5D doesn't have as much noise. Well, yeah, I would guess since it's like almost $3,000. My dream camera!! Ahhhhhh. But my little Rebel is the Rebel that could. It's great, and I have yet to maximize its capabilities, so I am not ready for a new one yet!

I also recently read in a Photoshop book by Scott Kelby that when you process a RAW image, there is a built-in noise reduction mechanism that you can use. I tried it with a shot I took at 1600, and it definitely reduced the noise. I have Photoshop Elements 5.0, and if I upload a RAW image, I have the capability to do this, so it's not like you need the higher versions of Photoshop (like CS2 or anything). Pretty cool!

Christina, thanks so much for that link to the free noiseware. I've been meaning to experiment with noiseware, so I will check it out. I've also heard that Noise Ninja is good, but I don't know that a free version is offered.

Thanks for this discussion, Tracey!! Happy Tuesday to everyone ;-)

[Stacy]

One thing that I have learned with using ISO 1600 is that I have to have my exposure really exact or I can get a lot of noise. I have heard that Canon's are better than Nikon's with noise, though. Bummer for me!

I did a shoot for one of my friends that had a lot of noise. The lighting was bad and since it was a family shoot I had to have my aperture higher. It was a lot of post-processing in photoshop to fix the prints. Wayyyy too much time fixing...I don't like to have to do that. Live and learn!

Thanks for that link Christina...I am going to try that program! It might save me some time on those occassions when I need to use it. :)

[tracey]

Hey ladies, I must interject here and say your comments are so helpful! Thank you so much.

[mrscrumley]

That is the best explanation of noise that I have ever read. Thanks for that. It explains some of my problems with the prints we have been getting.

[melody]

Thanks for your honesty and information. Until I began the quest to learn more about photography, I only equated noise with my boys.

Everyone's comments here are also extremely helpful. Thanks.

[jen McE]

I know someone mentions it above but I have found the 'Noise reduction' filter invaluable in PSE5 it also has a slider for 'Color noise' which I find stands out the most at the higher ISOs.
I also have CS2 but it doesn't have this really groovy noise reduction feature... there maybe other ways to get rid of it in CS2 but I am too green to know.
I've heard of the pros on flickr using a program (or plug in?) called 'Noise Ninja' I've seen samples and it's brilliant as well but I imagine costly. Not sure.

Hope this helps too!

[Christina]

I have to add a funny story. I am starting to research DSLRs and yesterday I was at Wolf camera. I commented that I've heard the Sony tends to be fairly noisy, and the sales guy said "yeah, well, all cameras make some sound." LOL, I think I need to find a new salesman. :o)