Noisy Shadows!

[Bobber]

Hey y'all, been a photog for years, but just getting into digital. I"ve been doing some cool stuff with people pix and landscapes, but now I am shooting in lowwwww light. 1/15, f2.8 iso800. The people look okay, but the background/shadows of the photos that are spotty, noisy. What would normally just go black in 35mm looks crappy in digital.

Any special tricks to this? I would love to find some camera controls to help (contrast perhaps?). Or should I over-expose a bit and let some faces blow out and fix that later? Or is this just a photoshop necessity? (Photoshop rookie... guess I'll be getting better soon!)

Thanks for help!

[wxwax]

Hey Bobber, welcome aboard!

I'm going to guess that the Dimage doesn't handle ISO 800 very well. From what I can see, a critical test of a digital camera is how much noise it produces at higher ISO settings. Most cameras that are not DSLRs seem to get pretty noisy at 400 and above.

That would appear to be the case with the Minolta DiMage 7i. Click here (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/minoltadimage7i/page14.asp) to read the part of the dpreview analysis that gets into it.

And hey, don't forget to post some of those pics in "Show Us Your Best Stuff" even if it's not your best stuff. :nod

To find out how, just click here. (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=92)

[wxwax]

Oh, I forgot to mention that there is software on the market that can help get rid of that noise without forcing you to compromise your shooting style. The guy at Luminous Landscape made several references to Noise Ninja when he was reviewing the Sony f828, which produces lots of nosie at pretty much any ISO. He wasn't worried, he said, because Noise Ninja could clean it up.

Check it out (http://www.picturecode.com/) here.

[fish]

boy...you're starting to get pretty smart about this stuff, waxy. I'm proud of you. :wxwax

[pathfinder]

boy...you're starting to get pretty smart about this stuff, waxy. I'm proud of you. :wxwax
Neat Image is another program to deal with digital noise -- http://www.neatimage.com/

[patch29]

Some cameras have a noise reduction setting. Some you activate it some do it on their own once you reach a certain shutter speed. Take a look through the cameras menus. It should help some if you have it, but the computer software should work better.

[Andy]

i use noise ninja, it's a great little tool. i highly recommend it.

andy