Shooting RAW and image noise

So toward the end of my vacation, and in attempting to take pics of the new (maybe waning) moon tonight, I messed with shooting in a RAW format. Many of my sunrise pictures, and even full daylight fast shutter speed shots, had a lot more "grain" and image noise to them.

I had set the ISO up a bit higher for the sunrise shots, but I had done that before as well with no problem, but I chalked all the noise up to that anyway. Tonight, though, shooting the moon, I went with the same settings I had used on the near full moon my last time around, bracketed a bit with different exposure levels, came in... and NOISE! I made 3 or 4 more trips outside before remembering the RAW, changed it back to JPG FINE mode and got crystal clear photos again without changing any of the other settings.

Can anyone help out a confused rookie??? What am I doing wrong?

Need more details. What ISO when shooting RAW. What post processing are you doing to the RAW shot.

Post examples

The sunrise and photos that day started in ISO 1600, which I've never had issue with noise before (shooting JPG fine, that is). The photos tonight I messed around with ISO 800, 400 and 200 all while shooting the moon.

I was simply befuddled by the sheer amount of noise and trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Switching to JPG fine removed all of the noise.

Here are 2 samples, both saved to .JPG obviously, with no post processing at all. Both images were taken at the same exact settings - ISO 200, f5.6, 1/160 shutter speed as I was trying to underexpose to make sure the moon wasn't overpoweringly bright (matrix metering right now). The 1st image was the RAW file, the 2nd image was the .JPG fine. Also, both were shot within 5 minutes of each other.

When shooting in JPEG the camera does the post processing for you including noise reduction. You can get better results with RAW BUT you have to do the post processing for yourself. Not a fair comparison to just convert it to JPEG and look at it.

Tracsoft - Don Kuykendall said:

When shooting in JPEG the camera does the post processing for you including noise reduction. You can get better results with RAW BUT you have to do the post processing for yourself. Not a fair comparison to just convert it to JPEG and look at it.

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I just mess with Picasa right now (LR 5 on the way! YAY!), so no post processing through that simple program helps, obviously. I've been toying with loading up ViewNX 2 to see if it can help. Any basic tricks to removing that grain/noise? Or should I just wait until I get to my LightRoom class?

LR will have a section on the Develop tab called Noise Reduction. You'll be able to change the Luminance to clean up noise. And fine tune some other aspects as well like detail and contrast. It's pretty easy and you'll get the hang of how much Noise Reduction is too much. It took me awhile.

ViewNX2 is a wonderful program and it does tons of stuff but Noise Reduction is not one of them. At least I could not find it if it does. I use Photoshop CS6 and Nic Tools to reduce noise

I think what you are seeing here is more a difference in exposure. The RAW one is over exposed to the point of losing detail in the moon. Just a quick exposure and contrast change made it much better.

The exposure meter in my viewfinder didn't show it being overexposed, but rather at least 2 stops underexposed, and it was shot with the same exact settings as the .jpg, so that confuses the heck out of me. Guess I have a lot to learn about shooting in RAW!

I can't see the EXIF data but just looking at the two shots the RAW exposure is way off from the JPEG one.

Go back and check the two shots and check the EXIF data

Not sure what other info you're asking for other than the big 3 (listed above), but here's the info I can get quickly:

For the RAW:
Kind: Nikon RAW image
Created: Today 8:53 PM
Dimension: 4608 x 3072
Color space: RGB
Focal length: 300
F number: 5.6
Exposure program: 4
Exposure time: 1/160

The JPEG matches exactly except for -
Kind: JPEG image
Created: Today 8:57 PM

Picasa shows both at ISO 200

What is Exposure program: 4? Never heard of that. Also what is the ISO of each shot.

Both were shot at ISO 200. Also, for the Exposure program, I'm not sure, that's just something that shows up when I right click and show the properties on my MAC. I know how to tell that there is no exposure compensation, though. Everything is "as shot". The only camera setting I changed between pics was from RAW to JPEG FINE.

What mode are you shooting it? AUTO, PROGRAM, etc?

In this case, both were shot in shutter priority mode. I was using the shutter speed to control my underexposure and to allow for a handheld shot.

Your first image looks like an ISO that's way to high and not the EXIF you posted. For comparison, I went out and shot the moon and cropped a slice of the moon from the raw and the jpeg and here is what I got for the same image. So assuming that it is the same file then I would first to a camera reset and if that doesn't fix it then I suspect something is not correct and may need servicing.

Do a Google on a little program called FxIF (spelled just like it shows). Install it. Go take a picture of something. Anything. Doesn't matter. Or use a picture you already have in your computer. Right click on the picture. Near the bottom, you sill see FxIF. Click on it. It will show you all the EXIF data of that particular picture. Now ya know.

Pretzel said:

The sunrise and photos that day started in ISO 1600, which I've never had issue with noise before (shooting JPG fine, that is). The photos tonight I messed around with ISO 800, 400 and 200 all while shooting the moon.

I was simply befuddled by the sheer amount of noise and trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Switching to JPG fine removed all of the noise.

Here are 2 samples, both saved to .JPG obviously, with no post processing at all. Both images were taken at the same exact settings - ISO 200, f5.6, 1/160 shutter speed as I was trying to underexpose to make sure the moon wasn't overpoweringly bright (matrix metering right now). The 1st image was the RAW file, the 2nd image was the .JPG fine. Also, both were shot within 5 minutes of each other.

View attachment 47543

View attachment 47542

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I don't believe they were shot at the exact same settings....

I'm more than willing to email both original files to someone to take a look. I've got no reason to spin a tale on this... Anyone willing to look at both files with EXIF intact if I send 'em directly?

Looking at the files in LightZone, though, I'm starting to think that maybe Picasa struggles with the RAW file?

That makes a lot of sense that maybe picasa is struggling and I don't believe anyone thinks you're spinning a tail. Trying to figure it out.

You can send it to me: [email protected]
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