D200 ISO 1600 in lowlight conditions.

[bwhinnen]

Yes I know more Motorsport!

But someone mentioned the D200 in lowlight high ISO, this is low ambient lighting, very overcast day at sunset or there abouts. Taken with the D200, 70-200VR. I need to grab the EXIF later on as it is not handy.

EXIF: ISO 1600, 200mm, 1/100, f3.2, Manual Exposure, Matrix Metering, D200, 70-200 VR.

ISO 1600


IS0 1600 after noise reduction applied.


ISO 1600 with half noise reduction applied.


I don't think the original is that bad all things considered...

Cheers
Brett

[jamesw]

the 1st is not bad, but the 2nd is awesome!

what NR engine did you use?

perhaps, if you would not mind, could you supply a few 100% crops of some of that photo?

[bwhinnen]

Original File is at home I'll have to grab it later on to grab the 100% crops. The engine was Neat Image, with the specific files for the D200 loaded.

[sirhc55]

Noise is only a real problem when the exposure is not spot on - these are great Brett

[jamesw]

Noise is only a real problem when the exposure is not spot on - these are great Brett

or - in my case a lot of the time - when your images have lots of shadow detail...

to get around it i use lots of artificial light to get around it, but having said that - i would like to give neat image or noise ninja a bit of a go - the prospect of being able to run the flashes at lower power levels to boost up recycle times...

looking forward to those 100% crops!

[bwhinnen]

Please don't hold your breath there James I will try to get them tonight as time permits

[jamesw]

no stress, i'm in no rush, take your time!

[Oz_Beachside]

steps to apply noise reduction?

[MCWB]

You know what? I think I prefer #1, it fits the 956C a bit better than the cleaner look in #2. #1 could easily have been taken in the late 80s...

[Pehpsi]

Nice shot, looks pretty sweet at 1600! I would probably go somewhere between the first and second shot with NR

I use NoiseNinja and bloody love it! It's flexible and super mega awesome..

[ATJ]

I had to look very closely to see the difference between the two images, which suggest one or more of:
1) my monitor is not very good
2) my eyes aren't very good
3) there isn't a whole of difference.

[bwhinnen]

There is difference there, look in the brown patches in the background to see it, as I said it doesn't worry me too much at all. Also added an image with half reduction done in the first post.

Here are some links to 100% crops (sorry 800x536):

Original

Full Noise Reduction

Half Noise Reduction

The method I took with this photo is as follows;

1. Layer adjustment for Curves, bring in more contrast.
2. Layer adjustment for Hue / Sat.
3. Sharpening (very slight).
4. Colour space change to sRGB from Adobe 1998.
5. Resize to 800x536 , 72dpi.
6. Save for web at 90%
7. Apply Neat Image on D200 / JPEG Large Fine / ISO 1600 Profile
8. Use both default noise reduction and then a custom half reduction.

Cheers
Brett

[Nigell]

I don't quite understand the "noise" thing. Film has had grain for years, its part of the character of the image. The same is also true of digital.

[Pehpsi]

Just personal preference i guess (I'm a noise hater).

The third is my cup-o-tea...A good balance.

[bwhinnen]

I don't quite understand the "noise" thing. Film has had grain for years, its part of the character of the image. The same is also true of digital.

I think it is just a digital thing, people want to see a extremely high ISO image with no noise characteristics, they are looking for the cleaner image without a lot of that character that film had.

I like a bit of both, some images scream take out the noise, others say leave me grainy I look better for it.

This was an image I played with, wanted to see how usable ISO 1600 was both with and without noise reduction applied. I only took a couple of images at this level at the event, most were at 400 or 800, which are quite usable.

Cheers
Brett

[SteveGriffin]

I agree. I think that the whole noise issue has been blown out of the water - mostly by Canon marketing people.

A number of cameras and photoshop filters are now on the market which add the noise / grain back into the image.

I like #1 with the noise and the clean (full noise reduction) version best