Grainy Skyline... Help Please!

Tom Grove

Senior Member
I was in San Diego this past Saturday and took several shots of the skyline at night... As suggested on another thread, I turned up my ISO to 3200. The shots looked fine in live view, so I didn't adjust anything... but when I got home, I found that every shot was grainy... What's worse, when I ran any of the photos through post production (I tried Photoshop, Lightroom, and Photomatix) they turned out even worse!!! I realize it's me and not the camera... Here's 3 of the shots... please tell me what adjustments I need to make for the next time... Thanks in advance!

DSC_1542.jpgDSC_1548.jpgDSC_1559.jpg
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
When you say you tried all those programs... let's stick with one...Lightroom... what exactly did you adjust?

The luminance slider in the develop module is used to reduce the noise... I assume, noise is what you mean by "grainy"...
 

Tom Grove

Senior Member
When you say you tried all those programs... let's stick with one...Lightroom... what exactly did you adjust?

The luminance slider in the develop module is used to reduce the noise... I assume, noise is what you mean by "grainy"...

Since I am not acquainted with Photoshop or Lightroom, I just went with the auto adjust features. I will try the luminance slider and see what happens.
 

Tom Grove

Senior Member
Hmmmmm... I will need to read a tutorial on how to use the luminance feature... Nothing I did worked... Can you do it to see if it makes a difference to those photos, and post the results?
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
Tom! It's not you. Shooting at 3200 ISO into the dark will give you noise.
Try this shot in Aperture priority. Set your ISO to 400 and your aperture to around f/5.6-f/8
Now set your camera on a tripod and click that shutter.
You'll see much improvement.
 

Tom Grove

Senior Member
Tom! It's not you. Shooting at 3200 ISO into the dark will give you noise.
Try this shot in Aperture priority. Set your ISO to 400 and your aperture to around f/5.6-f/8
Now set your camera on a tripod and click that shutter.
You'll see much improvement.

Ok... I had a tripod and was using a remote... but I also had it in manual mode... I will try the lower ISO in aperture next time... Thanks.
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
I can't help but say, I think its because you are trying to look in too many directions at one time. :) Every time I notice your avatar, I get dizzy.

BTW, you have "Disable download of your photos:" turned on in the General Settings, which prevents anyone from saving a photo and playing with settings.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I was in San Diego this past Saturday and took several shots of the skyline at night... As suggested on another thread, I turned up my ISO to 3200. The shots looked fine in live view, so I didn't adjust anything... but when I got home, I found that every shot was grainy... What's worse, when I ran any of the photos through post production (I tried Photoshop, Lightroom, and Photomatix) they turned out even worse!!! I realize it's me and not the camera... Here's 3 of the shots... please tell me what adjustments I need to make for the next time... Thanks in advance!
I can't really think of a better way to introduce noise into a shot than to shoot in low light using a high ISO.

Suggestions for next time? Invest in a good tripod, a wireless release and keep your ISO as low as possible. I used to do a lot of night photography and routinely used ISO 100 or 200. Digital noise *can* be removed in post processing but the results are often less than ideal. Besides, the less required in post' the better, IMO. Lastly, I noticed a significant drop-off in my success rate when using shutter speeds longer than thirty-seconds; I don't really know why and it could be that it's totally related to my technique and nothing else. That being said, I still suggest you try to keep your shutter speed under thirty-seconds.

....
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Hmmmmm... I will need to read a tutorial on how to use the luminance feature... Nothing I did worked... Can you do it to see if it makes a difference to those photos, and post the results?

I'm in the process of putting together a quick How To video on noise reduction for you and will upload it when it's done. Here's what I was able to do with one of the jpegs you have posted.

DSC_1548.jpg



Did you shoot RAW or JPEG? It's never a good idea to shoot JPEG with high ISO (or at almost any other time, IMHO). That said, all hope is not lost, though some of the details may be. Know the limitations of your camera with regard to ISO noise. For me, when I was shooting with the D7000 it capped out at ISO1600, and if I wanted to be sure to get details I didn't go above ISO 800 if I could help it.
 

Tom Grove

Senior Member
I can't help but say, I think its because you are trying to look in too many directions at one time. :) Every time I notice your avatar, I get dizzy.

BTW, you have "Disable download of your photos:" turned on in the General Settings, which prevents anyone from saving a photo and playing with settings.

I fixed it... sorry bout that... Thanks for the heads up!
 

Tom Grove

Senior Member
I can't really think of a better way to introduce noise into a shot than to shoot in low light using a high ISO.

Suggestions for next time? Invest in a good tripod, a wireless release and keep your ISO as low as possible. I used to do a lot of night photography and routinely used ISO 100 or 200. Digital noise *can* be removed in post processing but the results are often less than ideal. Besides, the less required in post' the better, IMO. Lastly, I noticed a significant drop-off in my success rate when using shutter speeds longer than thirty-seconds; I don't really know why and it could be that it's totally related to my technique and nothing else. That being said, I still suggest you try to keep your shutter speed under thirty-seconds.

....

I did use a tripod and wireless remote... but the other factors are what I need to adjust next time. Thanks.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Here you go - a quick How To on using ACR's Noise Reduction section, and the better option of using the Nik Collection's Dfine 2.0 tool, once you have it (and you will get it)...


(first sentence is cut off - I'm just telling you what I'm doing)

One thing I should have added, with the ACR noise reduction, you'll hit a point with both the Luminance and Color sliders where you really don't reduce any more noise, but all you do is lose more and more details, so look for that spot and don't go past it. And don't be afraid to retain a small amount of ISO noise if it's necessary to preserve crisp details. Sharpness is more important than noise removal.
 
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snaphappy

Senior Member
Shutter still waaaaay too fast. Anytime I shoot at night I do everything I can to keep ISO under 400 or its grainy and terrible. If you are using tripod and remote slow that shutter down and keep ISO 100-200. Turn the shutter dial until it says about 6" or even go slower if there isn't much light. The LCD always looks over bright at night.
 

Tom Grove

Senior Member
I'm in the process of putting together a quick How To video on noise reduction for you and will upload it when it's done. Here's what I was able to do with one of the jpegs you have posted.

View attachment 94305


Did you shoot RAW or JPEG? It's never a good idea to shoot JPEG with high ISO (or at almost any other time, IMHO). That said, all hope is not lost, though some of the details may be. Know the limitations of your camera with regard to ISO noise. For me, when I was shooting with the D7000 it capped out at ISO1600, and if I wanted to be sure to get details I didn't go above ISO 800 if I could help it.

I shot both (RAW slot 1, and JPEG slot 2)... The forum only allows for posting in jpeg. So yeah... I need to lower thee ISO and adjust the aperture slightly and increase the shutter time... I can't wait to go back out there... I might do it tonight locally to make sure I'm doing it correctly!

BTW... your fixer looks better than my original. :)
 

Tom Grove

Senior Member
Here you go - a quick How To on using ACR's Noise Reduction section, and the better option of using the Nik Collection's Dfine 2.0 tool, once you have it (and you will get it)...


(first sentence is cut off - I'm just telling you what I'm doing)

One thing I should have added, with the ACR noise reduction, you'll hit a point with both the Luminance and Color sliders where you really don't reduce any more noise, but all you do is lose more and more details, so look for that spot and don't go past it. And don't be afraid to retain a small amount of ISO noise if it's necessary to preserve crisp details. Sharpness is more important than noise removal.

Awesome!!! I will have to watch that once I get home from work!!! Much obliged!
 

Tom Grove

Senior Member
Shutter still waaaaay too fast. Anytime I shoot at night I do everything I can to keep ISO under 400 or its grainy and terrible. If you are using tripod and remote slow that shutter down and keep ISO 100-200. Turn the shutter dial until it says about 6" or even go slower if there isn't much light. The LCD always looks over bright at night.

Ok... I am soooo glad I found Nikonites! This is awesome advice from you guys!
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
And remember, there are 2 types of night shooting. There are cityscapes and the like, such as these, where you want to put things on a tripod, drop your ISO down, and just capture the image in all its clarity. Unless a lot of movement is visible (planes, trains and automobiles) then slow shutter speeds are your friend - and even when movement is visible, it can be used to your advantage if you use really slow speeds. Then there are star and night sky shots. Here, you want to use higher ISO to allow for more light to get it, but not so much ISO that you introduce noise. Don't confuse the two.

In both types, use a tripod, turn off your VR, use a remote (2 stage, mirror up + shutter activation with a wait in between) or the self timer (5 second delay to allow for the camera to still before the shutter activates).
 
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