Grainy pics-Seek help

[trainjunkie47]

I am tossing this out to anyone. Offer me some suggestions what I can do about repetatively grainy/pixilated pics.

My camera is a Sony Cyber-shot.
I photo edit with both micrographics photo magic and Jasc paint shop.

I have searched high and low in the troubleshooting sections to no avail. Don't concern yourself with offending me. I'm great with constructive comments.

Thanks in advance.

[Brian_F]

Kind of a wide open question there. Can you post a couple of examples?

It would also help to know

1. Camera model
2. ISO (sensitivity) you're using. The higher the ISO the more noise.
3. Resolution setting using. Some cameras can be set to lower resolutions, causing pixelation.
4. File quality setting. Lower settings make smaller files but jpg compression
can cause blotches and blocks in the color.

Any one of these could be the sticking point if they're grainy straight out of
the camera.

If it's the finished image that's the problem then could you outline the
steps you go through when post processing a shot?

We'll get this figured out!

Brian

[trainjunkie47]

My camera is a DSC-S75
My ISO has 4 settings (400, 200, 100, and default/auto). It is on 400. I think we got something here.
Resoultion has 5 settings of which I am using the middle setting of 1600 x 1200.
File quality setting has 2 settings, high and standard. I am in standard.

Other info. I have a manual exposure adjust that has a scale of (-2,-1,0,1,2) When shopping photos, my compression is set at 20%. So let me get this clarified, if I have a high quality shot out of the camera, I need to jack the setting on that given shot to preserve the image as true as possible, right?

I feel better already.

[Scooterb]

Brian_F gave some good info always use the best setting.
ISO auto or 100
Resoultion probably higher than 1600x1200 that will get the most out of you pics.
file quality high.

the better the quality of pics the less pics/files your card will hold.

I am no expert but JT Zack or Gregg can help you more.

[trainjunkie47]

Storage space is not an issue. So I will start using what I have.

Thanks Scooterb

[Stitch]

Just my 2 cents. Set the camera to the highest quality setting and put your ISO at 200. It helped me out.... Might set for the highest resolution your camera will allow then resize from there.

[~Z~]

Keep ISO at 100 if you have it on a manual exposure mode, or auto should be ok as long as there's enough light outside. If you have it on manual at 100 ISO, and the shutter speed has to dip down to lets say 1/200 second, you photos might start becoming blurry, so up that ISO a notch to 200.

Use the highest resolution settings, setting it to 2048x1536.
Use "Fine" for the quality settings.
Make sure to turn off digital zoom if you have this setting enabled.

On your photo editting software, the less compression you use, the better the photo usually turns out. I think you have that setting fine, as your file size on a 1024x768 picture looks fine...that's the size you should usually resize your images to before uploading..otherwise my gallery will resize the picture again to those standards.

Always happy to see photographers striving to do better...

[J T]

What Zack said.

I shoot with ISO set on 100 (the lowest on my camera) as MUCH as possible. I rarely go to 200, and almost never to 400. If I have to set it at 400, the shot is not really worth it to me, because these darn Rebels get REALLY noisy at 400 and above.

ISO/noise issues have kept me from getting shots I've wanted from time to time, but I've learned to live with it until I can get a 5D, which is fantastic for keeping the noise low at high ISO's.

Also, if you absolutely HAVE to bump the ISO up to get a shot and it makes the image noisy, there are programs to help reduce and sometimes eliminate the noise. One is called Noise Ninja. Check it out when you get a chance.

[Norm]

What Zack said.

I shoot with ISO set on 100 (the lowest on my camera) as MUCH as possible. I rarely go to 200, and almost never to 400. If I have to set it at 400, the shot is not really worth it to me, because these darn Rebels get REALLY noisy at 400 and above.

I almost always shoot the Nikon D50 at 400 ISO, and have found no problem with noise.

[J T]

What Zack said.

I shoot with ISO set on 100 (the lowest on my camera) as MUCH as possible. I rarely go to 200, and almost never to 400. If I have to set it at 400, the shot is not really worth it to me, because these darn Rebels get REALLY noisy at 400 and above.

I almost always shoot the Nikon D50 at 400 ISO, and have found no problem with noise.

Perhaps Nikon is a little better in the noise department that Canon. Can you post some of those 400 ISO pics? I'd like to see how they look. I can definitely see a lot of noise in 400 ISO pics my camera takes. I hate it.

[Norm]

JT, I haven't yet learned the software well enough to post a picture.

Can I email you one?

[trainjunkie47]

I just want to again thank everyone who contributed suggestions.

[Norm]

JT,

How did my picture compare to yours?

[trainjunkie47]

This is not the greatest image in the world, but I do think I have the grainy problem taken care of. I could not spend long fanning today, but needed to get a chance to pop a shot. I purposly did not crop or further edit.
Maybe next week I can get something worthwhile. At least I have a sporting chance. Thanks all.

[Stitch]

Wish I had some of you bad luck Excellent Picture....

[J T]

JT,

How did my picture compare to yours?

Looked good, Norm. If I shot that at 400 ISO, I'd definitely see some noise. Like I said, Rebels SUCK in the high ISO department.

[Mike]

For a ISO noise comparision:

My NIKON D2H is good from 200 - 500 then it gets ugly
My NIKON D2Sx is GREAT from 200 - 800 then gets bad (Does not shoot as many FPS as the D2h so I still use the D2h for railfaning.)
My Canon XT is good from 100 - 200 then its NO Good.

The Glass can also make a differnce to.

Just my two cents.....

Mike

[Scooterb]

You can try this site also I have had good luck with this and it is free.

http://www.neatimage.com/