Grainy Photos


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I was at a graduation ceremony and I was sitting way in the back. I was using my Nikon D60 with my 55-200MM VR and I noticed when I was in the 200MM range, the photos looked really grainy. Is this normal behavior?

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What mode were you shooting in? I think Nikons have auto ISO when you shoot in Auto or Program. And as for what you should set it to, it depends on the situation. The lower the better (I shoot at 100 ISO), but if you need more light for a faster shutter speed, then raise it up to 200 or 400 ISO. Anything above that would mean the grain would be really noticeable.

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Anything over 400 will have grain, if you really dont want any grain while shooting indoors get a fast glass and set your ison at 200, 100 if you will.

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Anything over 400 will have grain, if you really dont want any grain while shooting indoors get a fast glass and set your ison at 200, 100 if you will.

+1 for fast glass. Nothing beats fast glass. If the D60 is anything like the D200, I would consider it a "ISO 400 max camera"...

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Condition: Low light indoor room.

Equipment: Slow zoom lens (f/5.6 at 200mm).

Consequence: At 200mm, the largest aperture your lens can use is 5.6. That's not much light coming in, so it bumped up the ISO to compensate. Thus, you get the noise.

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dam ... who's that hot blonde with the purple heels?

oh and +1 for 1600 ISO looking pretty good. with my D50 @ 1600 it's pretty unbearable.

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Thanks for the comments. Now, as an amateur photographer... I would like to know what I could have done in this situation to make the picture better?

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Thanks for the comments. Now, as an amateur photographer... I would like to know what I could have done in this situation to make the picture better?

You could:

- buy a faster lens (i.e. 70-200 VR)

- buy a body with better high ISO (i.e. D90)

- buy strobes

Best long-term investment is the first option.

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lol, I laughed when I saw the ISO 1600 :p

I have a Photoshop filter called Noiseware by Imagenomic which is great at getting rid of noise like that:

post-39459-1243162718_thumb.jpg

Of course you loose a little on the quality side, but if you're only printing at A4 then I'd go with the less grain over the slight quality loss.

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that lady has some FINE legs.

i contribute nothing to this thread apart from the picture quality is sufficient for me to observe this.

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You could:

- buy a faster lens (i.e. 70-200 VR)

a fast lens, meaning that its maximum aperture is very wide, often in the range of ?/1.2, ?/1.4 and ?/1.8, permitting you to take pictures in low light with faster shutter speeds. It is also typically a sharp lens that is bright and easily-focused, with distortion-free images that have excellent resolution and color rendition. Many are autofocus, and some step down to apertures as low as ?/22 for extended depth of field. Some also have macro capability, making them dual purpose.

EF 70-200mm F2.8

EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6

http://www.photographytips.com/page.cfm/468

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lol, I laughed when I saw the ISO 1600 :p

I have a Photoshop filter called Noiseware by Imagenomic which is great at getting rid of noise like that:

post-39459-1243162718_thumb.jpg

Of course you loose a little on the quality side, but if you're only printing at A4 then I'd go with the less grain over the slight quality loss.

Awesome thanks!

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a fast lens, meaning that its maximum aperture is very wide, often in the range of ?/1.2, ?/1.4 and ?/1.8, permitting you to take pictures in low light with faster shutter speeds. It is also typically a sharp lens that is bright and easily-focused, with distortion-free images that have excellent resolution and color rendition. Many are autofocus, and some step down to apertures as low as ?/22 for extended depth of field. Some also have macro capability, making them dual purpose.

EF 70-200mm F2.8

EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6

http://www.photographytips.com/page.cfm/468

4.5-5.6 isn't fast. And the person who did the noise reduction killed almost any details left in the picture--it's all smudges now.

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4.5-5.6 isn't fast. And the person who did the noise reduction killed almost any details left in the picture--it's all smudges now.

+1 fast is the 2.8 and even that is considered slow for some people.

Also if you're going to be printing a4, there's no need for that such heavy noise reduction.

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4.5-5.6 isn't fast. And the person who did the noise reduction killed almost any details left in the picture--it's all smudges now.

duh! no kidding....I was showing the lens he uses compared to the 2.8 as a referance/example..not all new people to photography know exactly what fast lens means.

wider aperture=faster shutter speed=less light needed

I was at a graduation ceremony and I was sitting way in the back. I was using my Nikon D60 with my 55-200MM VR
a fast lens, meaning that its maximum aperture is very wide, often in the range of ?/1.2, ?/1.4 and ?/1.8, permitting you to take pictures in low light with faster shutter speeds. It is also typically a sharp lens that is bright and easily-focused, with distortion-free images that have excellent resolution and color rendition. Many are autofocus, and some step down to apertures as low as ?/22 for extended depth of field. Some also have macro capability, making them dual purpose.

EF 70-200mm F2.8 (someone made a referance to this lens being faster if you followed the thread)

EF 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6

http://www.photographytips.com/page.cfm/468

Edited by jwjw1
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