I have been taking a lot of pictures lately, and one problem I found difficult to deal with was the noise in them. Some of the images come up very clean, but some – especially the ones taken in low light and high ISO are very noisy. I set out to find out how to reduce noise from the images. After a bit of reading and some looking around, I figured there is no simple way to do this for me.
There are some Photoshop plugins and actions available to reduce noise. A lot of tips on how to do this and other techniques of getting better photographs. I couldn’t find something simple that I can do on my Mac! Something that could even integrate with iPhoto.
So for now, I am sticking with better lighting and normal ISO rates! If you expected some nifty tricks on the topic, sorry for letting you down!
I’ve heard good things about NoiseNinja, and known of a few other selections in the “removing noise” space.
However, one of the most common tricks I’ve known is, is tweaking the red channel on the picture. Most noise bleeds in on the red channel.
If you’re still using the S2, here’s something I’d recommend:
# Set the focus selection to “center spot only”
# Use the zoom lens, and use the entire barrel; i.e. “zoom all the way”
# Flip to Shutter Priority
Have your subject (preferably a live person of significance!) stand in / against a moving crowd and/or against moving traffic, preferably in the evening hours when the background is lit.
Get the lowest shutter speed; i.e. keep the shutter open for as long as possible, while focussing on the subject in the center of the frame.
The resulting depth of field and focus results in the following effects:
# Blurs out everything but your subject
# The background is moving, and the shutter’s open for a while, so its naturally blurred as well – while your subject is sharp
# Works both in sunlight and the evening hours. In the evening hours, the traffic offers the light. In sunlight hours, its a great blur effect nonetheless.
Oh, and while doing all this, make sure your ISO is at 80 or lower. You want the “streaks” and “blurs” from the traffic and/or moving background. The results are quite trippy.
Later,
Sujeet
Using manual mode will be helpful. My digicam is of ISO 1000, while you can reduce the ISO rate too.