tips for noise reduction in macros in poor light

[thes3raph1m]

well ive been trying my first dslr camera with its full manual control over the aperture and shutterspeed (f2.8-f11 i think its to f11 anyway, at least that)

and bulb up to 30 seconds or down to 1/4000 sec
iso 80-1600

anyway... in macro shots or basically most shots (im using iso 800 which is probably the reason so i suppose i need not finish this thread but i will)
im getting a lot of noise... i could reduce it in adobe photoshop RAW, but id rather it not be there at all tbh..

tips?

[NickCantle]

May I ask why you're using such a high ISO?

[GerryNick2]

Nick has already hinted at the problem.

The higher the ISO setting the more noise you are likely to introduce into the image. A lot of cameras produce their best images at ISO 200 and depending on the camera can produce reasonably noise free images at ISO 400. If shooting in poor light conditions try using the inbuilt flash to add some fill light. in the case of close ups of still objects use the smallest aperture on the camera, this will mean a slow shutter speed and require the camera to be mounted on a tripod.

Gerry

[glsammy]

Can you tell us which camera you have? Different makes have different noise levels, plus different settings you can adjust to help limit it.

[DaiTheDragon]

Can you also tell us what you are photographing or post a photo.

Dai

[thes3raph1m]

at the minute im just photographing still life, a tub of tattoo healing cream, it has a design on the top and also some dust, but with a small sheen to it...

i have discovered the problem, it was the iso, combined with hand shake, a micro tripod (about 10cm tall) helped with it, as well as using the 2sec delay to remove shake from the button pressing

its a fujifilm finepix s9600(s9100 usa) i also decided to use the manual focus ring instead of the autofocus as it was focusing on the wrong thing... solved my own problem tbh lol! woohoo

[PMG]

Originally Posted by thes3raph1m

at the minute im just photographing still life, a tub of tattoo healing cream, it has a design on the top and also some dust, but with a small sheen to it...

i have discovered the problem, it was the iso, combined with hand shake, a micro tripod (about 10cm tall) helped with it, as well as using the 2sec delay to remove shake from the button pressing

its a fujifilm finepix s9600(s9100 usa) i also decided to use the manual focus ring instead of the autofocus as it was focusing on the wrong thing... solved my own problem tbh lol! woohoo

For small stuff close you can come down to 100 film speed. I started off with a fuji finepix back in '99 and found that it had a habit of making the background a lot clearer and in focus than I wanted sometimes (things like a blue tit or robin on a perch where you want the bird to stand out and the backing blurred) so sticking to 5.6 aperture will help keep the background fairly unluttered. For close up flower photography 5.6 will give enough depth for all or nearly all the flower (depending on the type of flower). For insect photography f11 to f16 might be neccessary to get all the wings, legs, anntennae in focus - also a little fill-in flash. I seem to remember mine had a very subtle fill-in flash when it was turned down to minus 2. Its always worth it with a static object like flower photography to try several different ways and views and try fill in flash too, then when you download at home you can decide which effect you think works best.

Enjoy - I got some excellent results with mine - and some of my very early bird shots from hides (robin, chaffinch etc) where I was only 6ft from the birds are still in contention with my latest photography with my latest Canon gear!!

Have fun - hope the weather improves soon enough for you to go out and start taking wildlife shots!!

Good Luck
Pauline

[pressld2]

Originally Posted by thes3raph1m

solved my own problem tbh lol! woohoo

Good for you! It's nice to have a friendly forum like this one full of peopele willing to share their advice and experience, but I always find I remember better when I've worked it out for myself.

Dave P.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by thes3raph1m

at the minute im just photographing still life, a tub of tattoo healing cream, it has a design on the top and also some dust, but with a small sheen to it...

i have discovered the problem, it was the iso, combined with hand shake, a micro tripod (about 10cm tall) helped with it, as well as using the 2sec delay to remove shake from the button pressing

its a fujifilm finepix s9600(s9100 usa) i also decided to use the manual focus ring instead of the autofocus as it was focusing on the wrong thing... solved my own problem tbh lol! woohoo

If you are doing indoor stuff like this you can also improve the light - this doesnt need to be hugely expensive - as its suprising how much difference one or two desk lamps can make on small subjects (just remember to set the wb to indoor to avoid an odd colour cast)

this also allows you to experiment with back lighting, side lighting , soft box ( shining the light through a piece of tissue) , snoot (a cone of black card on the front of the light), etc

[thes3raph1m]

colour cast is a good thing to watch for... i suppose doing all my pics in camera RAW helps as i can change these things later