how high an ISO can you set and still get mnimal noise_with 3300

tea2085

Senior Member
Experimenting with my zoom lens and wondered- my sharpest shots (focus wise)seemed to be at 800 IS0 but have added noise. Paul
 

Griso

Senior Member
Yes, a higher ISO will allow a faster shutter speed and (usually!) a sharper, crisper photo, but at the expense of noise.

I think most will agree (including you, by the sound of it!) that a sharp 'noisy' photo is much better than a blurry ('cos of slow shutter), but noise free photo.

Don't worry about increasing ISO to achieve a high enough shutter speed (rule of thumb is shutter speed should be slower than 1/focal length (or 1/(1.5xfocal length) for crop sensors). So for a 300mm lens, try and keep above 1/500th, but faster for moving things like birds. Although if nothing is moving and you have VR on, then you may be safe down to 1/50th give or take!
 

Bob Blaylock

Senior Member
How high an ISO can you set and still get minimal noise_with 3300

I don't think that's a question that can rationally be answered. First, you'd have to objectively define what level of noise constitutes “minimal noise”, and I don't think you can do that. It's not like there is some point in the ISO scale, where if you go above that line the pictures will suddenly be very noisy, when just below that line, they are very clean. You'll have more noise at 200 than you had at 100; just as you'll have more noise at 1600 than at 800; just as you'll have more noise at 12800 than at 6400.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
With Bob on this and will add noise will depend on exposure in the sense a correctly exposed shot will show less noise than under exposed dark areas pulled back
 

tea2085

Senior Member
Really, I am reaching out to other 3300 users to tell me how much ISO they dare shoot with- given the noise factor. I think most of the time the amount of noise at 800 is no problem, just thinking ahead that if I get that once in a lifetime shot-I want to be able to enlarge it! Paul
 

hark

Administrator
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Really, I am reaching out to other 3300 users to tell me how much ISO they dare shoot with- given the noise factor. I think most of the time the amount of noise at 800 is no problem, just thinking ahead that if I get that once in a lifetime shot-I want to be able to enlarge it! Paul

The Nik Collection was recently released as being free (normally $149). Nik Dfine does an excellent job of noise reduction. You should give it a try and see how it works for some of your higher ISO images. Using noise reduction will lower the sharpness slightly so you'll need to work with it. I've used it on some of my ISO 2500 and 3200 images from a D610. It makes a huge difference.

https://www.google.com/nikcollection/
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Really, I am reaching out to other 3300 users to tell me how much ISO they dare shoot with- given the noise factor. I think most of the time the amount of noise at 800 is no problem, just thinking ahead that if I get that once in a lifetime shot-I want to be able to enlarge it! Paul
How much digital noise you get in a photo will depend on several factors, not the least of which is the shot itself. Highlights, or high-er lights, will typically have less discernible noise than shadows will. Then too, one person might find a certain level of noise acceptable, while someone else might not. So, as has been pointed out, your question as it's being put, can't be answered. Personally, of all the potential problems posed by the exposure triangle digital noise is the one I worry about least.

Look at this way: Would you rather have a noisy photo, or a photo that is blurry from too slow a shutter speed, or out of focus because you had insufficient depth of field?

Which problem of those three is more correctable? The answer: digital noise.
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
Really, I am reaching out to other 3300 users to tell me how much ISO they dare shoot with- given the noise factor. I think most of the time the amount of noise at 800 is no problem, just thinking ahead that if I get that once in a lifetime shot-I want to be able to enlarge it! Paul

It really depends on how much tolerance you have for noise. Everyone's different. I have a very low tolerance for noise. NR helps but only up to a certain point before your shots start to look very soft from over using it. I can spot a heavy NR shot a mile away. Not pretty!
 

rocketman122

Senior Member
since no one wants to give a definitive answer, Ill jump in. imo iso 1600/2000 (maybe 3200) would be the most id shoot with till I learned what it can do and how comfortable I am wih it. when I got my D3s, I was very scared to pass iso4000, yesterday I shot a wedding and was shooting at the dance floor at iso8000.

it also depends if im shooting a white/bright object or something in shade which is black to begin with. I had the camera and had to shoot a wedding and only reading upon the d3300, then thats what id use. be aware though, and this is critical, primes will almost always give a better outcome in IQ. and flash as well also lower grain showing up. and exposure is critical as well.


see this article here
Some low light shot with D3300: Nikon DX SLR (D40-D90, D3000-D7200) Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

notice the back to back images of the cafe seats and he shot them 6400 and 3200. I would prefer the 3200 over the 6400 (although I think it was handheld and his focus was different for both. image looks crisper at 3200 there), but what I mean of bright vs shade... this is quite a bright scene that doesnt expose grain badly.

now go down to the tea kettle image. its shot with no ambient light in the scene naturally (no flash), so grain is very well pronounced.
 
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tea2085

Senior Member
Wow-THANKS a load for the article, rocketman. That clears up the ISO issue, now just want advice as to best tool to use to reduce NR.
Very, very helpful- Paul
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
BT, what is the best way to apply NR during the shot with a camera setting or in post processing? Paul

I always apply NR during post processing. If I just need minimal NR then I just apply it to the whole shot. If I need more extensive NR I do it selectively, mostly on the background and leaving the main subject alone leaving it as sharp as possible.
 

rocketman122

Senior Member
Wow-THANKS a load for the article, rocketman. That clears up the ISO issue, now just want advice as to best tool to use to reduce NR.
Very, very helpful- Paul

What blacktop said is good advice. having a bit of noise on the subject focus area is not so bad as it also gives acuity and the look of sharpness. you can also then later on use a blur tool in PS later and just slightly brush away areas where the grain showed up which are not in focus. tact is always adviced. people go way overboard when editing imges with different filters. especially faces with face having no texture and looking like a porcelain doll.

but theres a limit on how grainy the image can be and how much it can be enhanced after. good lens, subject lighting and exposure is key. oh and dont expect to shoot at the extremes and be able to edit it to perfection. meaning. dont shoot an 85 1.8 at 1.8 and shoot at 6400 iso and then expect to get it to even acceptable levels. at 1.8 the lens is not at its sharpest and grain is the highest. you need a good image to start with.
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
@tea2085 To answer your question, I think @Blacktop uses one of the NIK collection tools and probably Photoshop to reduce the noise in post processing. I just downloaded the NIK collection of tools, so I am not yet familiar what does what in them, but I think it is something like Dfine.
 
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hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I only do noise reduction in post processing--either with Bridge (which is like Lightroom) or with Nik Dfine.

Since I don't do in camera noise reduction, here's a question perhaps someone can answer: does it take longer to write a file to the card when in camera noise reduction is applied, or is that only for long exposures when done in camera?
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
Blacktop, but what post processing tool do you use. Paul

This forum has notifications if you mention another poster. What I mean, is if you have a question for another poster , you can use "@" symbol @tea2085 in front of the posters name and that poster gets a notification that someone has mentioned them. It is a busy place with lots of threads and sometimes we forget that we participated in a certain thread.

To answer your question, sometimes I use LR's adjustment brush to brush away out of focus area background noise. When I want to apply light NR to the whole image I use Nik Tool's DeFine. IMO it does a better job then LR's NR sliders. These work for me, but there are many other NR tools out there that you can try and experiment with to see what fits in best with your workflow.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
I try to recover a lot of shadows, so in my case ISO 400 is what I go to for low light, with ISO 800 in exceptionally dark situations or on a dance floor. In case you can get the exposure perfect and are not bothered of recovering shadows, then ISO 1600 and even 3200 are fine, but there will be a lot of noise in the dark areas.

That said, I think that in most advanced software you can mask out the fore ground (or the main subject) which is exposed properly, and then you apply the NR to the region out side. That is what many people do, as the back ground except in landscape shots is of less importance and can be softened up to reduce noise.
 
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