Too much noise

I'm 14 years old, I am a new photographer hoping to go professional, but I keep stumbling across problems. I always thought that a forum would not help but I'll give it a shot!

Okay, I have recently been taking pictures of my school soccer team from the sideline. When I take these pictures, I am at the point where the sun is in front of me but not on the screen. I use a DMC-FZ7, and I seem to keep getting a lot of noise in my photos. I usually have the camera on F4.0 with a shutter speed of 1/1300-1/1600.

Please help!

Zachary Harrison said:

I'm 14 years old, I am a new photographer hoping to go professional, but I keep stumbling across problems. I always thought that a forum would not help but I'll give it a shot!

Okay, I have recently been taking pictures of my school soccer team from the sideline. When I take these pictures, I am at the point where the sun is in front of me but not on the screen. I use a DMC-FZ7, and I seem to keep getting a lot of noise in my photos. I usually have the camera on F4.0 with a shutter speed of 1/1300-1/1600.

Click to expand...

Hi Zach,

When we get questions like this I always stop for a moment and wonder if this is a guy pulling our chain or really someone who want's to know. We don't teach photography. You can find answers to most of these questions by going to B&H website and look at the tutorial sections. This is only one of the many rich sources.

The sun: In general, unless you have a particular reason to do so, try not to be shooting into the sun, rather have the sun behond you. If there is a lot of sun use a lens hood and even a polarizing filter to stop glare.

For sports a fast shutter speed is great. However, first you must set the sensitivity of the camera, the ISO to a setting fro which you camera can give relatively noise free images. You cannot just have the setting at 640 ISO and assume there is little noise. It depends on the camera.

Use an ISO of at or below 400 on most digicams.

Use Noise Ninja afterwards to get rid of the noise.

I don't know whether you have Photoshop of elements, but you do need a program for cleaning up the noise. Apple iphoto may do that too, if you have it on your computer.

So that's that! You can post an image but we cannot train you.

...and if you are joking, you'll be judged!!!

Asher

Zach, I don't mean to second guess Asher. I'm going to buy into you being 14 and learning.....and good for you....really. And good for you for asking.

I'd like to rant just a bit, please don't take it personally because you are trying to learn and I'm assuming you are asking a legitimate question.

I'm an old guy. We used to deal with "grain". I hear this "noise" issue (no offense intended, really) so much. Noise is nothing compared with the "grain" we used to deal with.

Yes, I understand technology changes, "grain" is likely a new concept to you, and one, thankfully, you'll nver have to deal with.Noise is as simple as being able to adjust our ISO at will, and our sensor tries to deal with it. You can read epics, but it's no more complicated than that, really.

I only suggest you do not fall into this "noise" nonsense and let it ruin what could be a lot of fun for you. I't s just not that big of a deal. Try Noise Ninja, as Asher mentioned. Don't shoot into the sun until you really have a grasp.....then you won't do it anyway. <lighthearted smirk>
-Greg

Thanks guys, my dad is taking me to the store tonight, maybe I can get some of these programs, Noise Ninja and Apple Iphoto are programs that i can buy, correct?

Zach, good for you.

I woke up this am worrying my comments were too abrupt, as likely they were.

You can get free trial downloads for PS plug-ins such as Noise Ninja, and play with them risk free. If you like them you can buy them when the trail period expires. I do this all the time. My PS plug-ins (paid and legal) are sacred to me, albeit "cheating" to an extent on my part because the tools already exist.....I'm just too lazy to learn most of them!

Have fun with photography, Zach! You have me thinking of how much fun I used to have with it when I was your age.

This is a wonderful forum, and if my post in any way offensive, my bad. Have jun, learn, I can't believe I'm saying this, but post some of your stuff here and those more qualified than I will help you. I'm sure of it!

I was more leaning towards newcomers (older than you) who gripe about noise. 24 hours later, I can put myself in your spot, remembering me at 14, and fussing about the things we fussed about then.

Last word: HAVE FUN! Please thyself...not need to please anyone else. Oh, and don't fret the noise too much. <ha>

Kindest regards,
-Greg <blushing a bit>

Zach -- unlike most of us, you may well qualify for academic discounts on software. Sometimes the discounts can be tremendous.

You will need some proof that you attend school -- that can be a grade card or a letter.

Academicsuperstore.com has much of what you might need. And for stuff that they don't sell, call the company and ask for an academic discount.

My 13yr old daughter is into photography and I get stuff for her this way. But not for me :-(

As for soccer photography, try 1/250 shutter speed. You'll get a bit of motion blur. Try 1/500 too for less blur. Lower Iso generally means lower noise. Plan on shooting 500 or more shots per game, and hoping you get 100 keepers! (Call camerabits.com and ask them for academic discount on photomechanic -- that REALLY helps plow thru 500 shots!)

Ron

Ok Zach I have to agree with what they are say. getting a photo is about timeing and luck. some shots could be different and could be more or less difficult. taking pictures at dusk will bring problems to a newbe. if you can try to get a shot when the sun is not at dusk. try to sshoot away from the sun. and just pratice tis will get rid of alot of problem you will have to deal with. Photoshop is a great program to use. at least it has a good basics to be able to learn and their are so many things you can do with it.
Todd

Digital Zoom....

Hello Zach,
The camera you have also has a digital zoom setting. Is it at all possible that you are confusing digital noise with pixelation ?? You will get a pixelated image when using your camera with the digital zoom turned ON.

<Pixelation is the display of a digitized image where the individual pixels are apparent to a viewer. This can happen unintentionally when a low-resolution image designed for an ordinary computer display is projected on a large screen and each pixel becomes separately viewable.>

not to be confused with digital noise from a high ISO setting.

Unfortunately with your camera, even at the highest ISO of 400, you will get a reasonable amount of sensor noise. I do not think that you will be able to have it both ways, ie using the fastest shutter speed with a high ISO setting. I feel to achieve the best sports images from your camera, use ISO100 and set your camera to shutter priority ( big 'S' on the top dial), and manually set the shutter speed to anything over 1/1000 sec. and remember to turn the digital zoom setting to OFF.

It's not all bad, sometimes I think it is better to capture an image with a slight % of blurriness, in the case of soccer, legs and ball in motion, as long as the main aspect of the photo remains sharp ie. bodies and facial expressions. The slight (not too much) blurriness will give you the feel of motion and speed which can be an attractive quality in some cases. But remember, the more you zoom in, the harder it will be to keep your camera steady. It may be worth your while purchasing a monopod from a camera shop to help with this, they are relatively inexpensive.

Read this: Shutter Priority

Anyway, I hope this helps. I hope that you will continue with your photography and possibly display some of them here when you are ready. We all had to start somewhere.

Best Regards,
Barry.

I forget.....

Hello again Zach,

There were a couple of other things I forgot to mention in yesterday's post.

Your camera does have a continuous auto-focus (CONT.AF) setting. Turn this to ON, as well use a single centre auto focus point in the AF Mode with the H (High) next to it.

You were originally complaining about 'digital noise' in your photos, and your camera does have a 'Noise Reduction' setting as well. Look in the camera setting menu for PICT.ADJ. and you will see 'Noise Reduction'; set this to HIGH.

That's about all I can help you with..... Good Luck !!

Regards,
Barry.

Zach, I have a Lumix FZ-30 and while Panasonics perform very well in good light, they are somewhat known for not performing so well in low light, hence noise.

You're going to see the exact same thing (to varying degrees) in any non DSLR.

As mentioned before, sometimes noise/grain can be used to add a different mood or feel to your photography. As you take more pictures and learn more you'll notice those opportunities more and more.

Hi Zach and welcome. Does your camera select auto-ISO when shooting in fully automatic mode? Many of them do and they tend to bump up the ISO at the drop of a hat and that increases the noise. You can overcome this by shooting Aperture or Shutter Priority or Manual Mode instead of fully Auto.