Noise reduction on T1i

[gavavemom]

So for whale watching my understanding is to go with a 800 ISO (given a cloudy day), 1/1600th of a sec shutter speed and the lowest aperture my lens will go. On the T1i, there is a custom function you can set to reduce noise, called high iso noise reduction and you can set to standard, low, and high. Is it recommended to change those settings? I've heard the t1i can be quite grainy with high iso's. Also in general if it's a cloudy day and I am not shooting moving subjects, is it recommended to go with 800 as an iso? Obviously I would lower the shutter speed. Any tips are helpful as I am still a beginner who usually shoots in auto mode but given an opportunity like Alaska, would like to expand my comfort zone.

[awboater]

I would think you could lower your shutter speed a bit. And I am not sure what you mean by setting your aperture to the lowest setting; smallest opening (largest f number) or largest opening (lowest f number)?

 

If you set your aperture to it's largest opening (lowest f number), then depending on your lens, your depth-of-field may not be what you want. It depends on how far your subject is away from you, but if your focus is not dead-on, you could end up with some blur in your photos.

 

Here is where practice comes into play.

 

Go out and photograph some slow moving cars, and play with the aperture and shutter speeds. Of course a whale is not going to move as fast as a car, but it will give you some idea as to the relationship you will want to have.

 

And you will most likely want to shoot photos with both fast and slow shutter speeds. For instance, you might want to have some blur in a few photos to show motion, but for others you want to have crisp dead-on clear photos.

''

I used to take photos of race cars in motion. That was a challenge. The primary issue was you could not even begin to focus fast enough regardless of whether you manually focused or relied on your camera to auto focus. For that reason, the trick was to compensate for focus by using a smaller aperture - which meant greater depth-of-field so you simply manually set the focus for somewhere near the subject and leave it alone. But then, a small aperature let less light in, and you already needed the fastest shutter speed you could get for 200mph moving objects.

 

And film those days - if you went more than ISO 200 or perhaps 400 was pushing it, you would get grainy shots (aka digital noise these days). As a result, a good photo was more luck than anything else.

 

But fortunately, whales don't move that fast, but I am pointing out that all situations will require some compromise between ISO speed, shutter speed, and aperture. Knowing how the three interact is paramount, but even as important, practice to instill confidence in your knowledge is necessary.

 

In general, the various combinations of shutter speeds and apertures will provide different results.

 

Faster shutter speeds will reduce motion due to blur, camera shake for telephoto lenses, but at the loss of light.

 

Slower shutter speeds will increase blur (sometimes advantageous for moving water, etc), and let in more light. As well, camera shake will be more noticeable, and at very slow speeds, a tripod is necessary (you will probably not want to go that far).

 

Small apertures (higher f numbers) will increase depth of field, meaning more front-to-back area is in focus, but at loss of light. And real small apertures (maximum f number) might result in distortion.

 

Larger apertures will decrease depth of field, meaning less front-to-back area is in focus. This is sometimes advantageous for intentionally blurring the background for aesthetic reasons, but it also comes at a risk of having part of your subject in blur as well.

 

The distance your subject is from the camera plays a part in this as well.

 

We can discuss all sorts of different scenarios, but again, the best results you will achieve is to go out and practice. Take notes when you take your shots so you will know what is what - although metadata in your photos will tell what camera settings you used for each shot. You can also try the same things in sunny and cloudy days.

 

This is so easy these days to practice with digital cameras as you don't have to pay for processing experiment photos.

 

You may find out that the advice you were given may or may not be correct. You will want to know that prior to your cruise. When you practice, start out with those settings if you want - then see how they turn out and try to improve on them. And try different distances between you and your subject to see how that changes.

 

The way to practice is to try a certain setting, see the results, then change just one setting (distance to subject, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, lighting conditions, etc.) and see how that changes the photo, and so on. Try to figure out how changing each setting changed the photo and why.

 

Practice begats learning... practice, practice, practice.

[chipmaster]

For noise reduction try neatimage in post processing, they offer a free demo program. I'd not mess with the noise reduction on the camera without some research and lots of testing.

 

As to shooting, even with a very long tele lens, unless you don't have stabilization I think 1/focal length is a decent rule of thumb.

 

1/1600 sounds a bit overkill unless you are shooting 500mm and fast action on a rocking boat. I had decent luck even with flying eagles as I was panning to reduce any motion issues, and came away with decent pictures at 1/1000 at 420mm ~ F8

 

800 ISO really shouldn't be too bad unless you are not nailing exposure even on the older T1i, I know most Nikons from D40 on can do pretty decent at 800 and even 1600 with a pass thru neatimage.

 

Unless you are really intent on narrow DOF for just vacation snapshots F8 is a decent starting point as often you get both good focus range and often the best from lens resolution. This is even more important if you aren't shooting a 2.8 zoom as the quality wide open also becomes a factor on the consumer lens.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

So for whale watching my understanding is to go with a 800 ISO (given a cloudy day), 1/1600th of a sec shutter speed and the lowest aperture my lens will go. On the T1i, there is a custom function you can set to reduce noise, called high iso noise reduction and you can set to standard, low, and high. Is it recommended to change those settings? I've heard the t1i can be quite grainy with high iso's. Also in general if it's a cloudy day and I am not shooting moving subjects, is it recommended to go with 800 as an iso? Obviously I would lower the shutter speed. Any tips are helpful as I am still a beginner who usually shoots in auto mode but given an opportunity like Alaska, would like to expand my comfort zone.

[RCI_FADM_76]

Law of the land - the higher ISO - the more noise...

 

Another (very approximate) rule of thumb - minimum shutter speed for hand held exposures is 1/(focal length) s.

 

I don't know how low an ISO the T1i can achieve; however, I use a 40D and a 50D. I try to always keep the ISO at 100...the moment the ISO goes past 400, I see too much noise.

 

My guess is that with the kit lens (as I assume you are using given you indicated that you are a beginner), you will be limited to f/5.6 through the entire focal length(probably can get f/3.5 at the shortest focal length). In Auto, the camera selects the ISO. What I would recommend is to forget auto mode and try this. Use the camera in Aperture priority (Av mode). Set your ISO as low as possible and your aperture to f/5.6 (for beginners and most vacation shooting f/5.6 and f/8 cover most everything). The camera will select the shutter speed. As long as you meter over 1/125s, you'll probably be OK... unless you've had too much coffee...

 

Practice and get comfortable with Av mode...after a while, you'll see that auto mode is very limiting.

 

Now for whale watching or where you have to deal with motion, it may be worth trying Shutter priority (Tv) mode... works in just the opposite fashion as Av mode. It selects the aperture based on the set shutter speed. A good approach is to take some test shots and increase the shutter speed to achieve the clarity you are looking for... all while keeping your ISO as low as possible.

 

Again and as previously mentioned - practice and get comfortable with the way the camera works.

[chipmaster]

Noise at 400 ISO on 50D :eek: WOW you must be looking at 100% or printing and viewing at 14x20 size or something. My buddies 50D he can push to 1600 with care, can't compare to the 10,000 I shoot but shooting black has some perks :o

 

Law of the land - the higher ISO - the more noise...

 

Another (very approximate) rule of thumb - minimum shutter speed for hand held exposures is 1/(focal length) s.

 

I don't know how low an ISO the T1i can achieve; however, I use a 40D and a 50D. I try to always keep the ISO at 100...the moment the ISO goes past 400, I see too much noise.

 

My guess is that with the kit lens (as I assume you are using given you indicated that you are a beginner), you will be limited to f/5.6 through the entire focal length(probably can get f/3.5 at the shortest focal length). In Auto, the camera selects the ISO. What I would recommend is to forget auto mode and try this. Use the camera in Aperture priority (Av mode). Set your ISO as low as possible and your aperture to f/5.6 (for beginners and most vacation shooting f/5.6 and f/8 cover most everything). The camera will select the shutter speed. As long as you meter over 1/125s, you'll probably be OK... unless you've had too much coffee...

 

Practice and get comfortable with Av mode...after a while, you'll see that auto mode is very limiting.

 

Now for whale watching or where you have to deal with motion, it may be worth trying Shutter priority (Tv) mode... works in just the opposite fashion as Av mode. It selects the aperture based on the set shutter speed. A good approach is to take some test shots and increase the shutter speed to achieve the clarity you are looking for... all while keeping your ISO as low as possible.

 

Again and as previously mentioned - practice and get comfortable with the way the camera works.

[RCI_FADM_76]

Noise at 400 ISO on 50D :eek: WOW you must be looking at 100% or printing and viewing at 14x20 size or something. My buddies 50D he can push to 1600 with care, can't compare to the 10,000 I shoot but shooting black has some perks :o

 

Actually, I'm very...very picky about noise. Unlike film grain, digital noise is horribly unappealing. For a lot of the work I do, I need low noise in the shadows - the inherently tricky region for DSLRs when it comes to noise performance.

 

Further, the noise inherent in the photo makes any post processing all the more difficult. Yes, you can use noise reduction software, but the good ones come at a cost. I prefer to cut it off at the source - low ISO.

[awboater]

I have been pretty impressed with the noise reduction capability of Adobe Lightroom. Before I got my f/2.8, I suffered through taking hockey photos with a f/4~5.6 zoom. Consequently I had to jack up the ISO. Lightroom V3 did an amazing job at fixing the noise.

 

There are a few demo videos on You Tube on Lightroom's noise reduction engine, and that is what initially led me to buying it. This capability has been much improved in V3, and I understand the noise reduction algorithm is so good it will be ported over to Photoshop CS in it's next major version.

 

True, Lightroom is a bit expensive at $300 MSRP (I got mine last Nov. though for $150 when Adobe had a $100 rebate, and Amazon kicked in a $50 discount).

 

On the other hand, Lightroom is a whole lot cheaper than a 70-200 f/2.8.

 

Still, I agree that the best place to "fix" the problem is during shooting, not post processing. But sometimes your equipment isn't going to produce the desired results, so you learn to improvise.

[RCI_FADM_76]

I have been pretty impressed with the noise reduction capability of Adobe Lightroom. Before I got my f/2.8, I suffered through taking hockey photos with a f/4~5.6 zoom. Consequently I had to jack up the ISO. Lightroom V3 did an amazing job at fixing the noise.

 

There are a few demo videos on You Tube on Lightroom's noise reduction engine, and that is what initially led me to buying it. This capability has been much improved in V3, and I understand the noise reduction algorithm is so good it will be ported over to Photoshop CS in it's next major version.

 

True, Lightroom is a bit expensive at $300 MSRP (I got mine last Nov. though for $150 when Adobe had a $100 rebate, and Amazon kicked in a $50 discount).

 

On the other hand, Lightroom is a whole lot cheaper than a 70-200 f/2.8.

 

Still, I agree that the best place to "fix" the problem is during shooting, not post processing. But sometimes your equipment isn't going to produce the desired results, so you learn to improvise.

 

Agreed 100%. My big thing is that people, especially beginners, are often times led to believe that the only way to achieve a decent image is a combination of fast glass and software... the camera and the concepts on how to use it often get ignored.

[pierces]

I'm still amazed that people freak out at a bit of noise at ISO1600 when viewed at 200% on a monitor (equivalent to viewing something like a 48"x72" print at 12" distance.

 

Does anybody remember when a high ISO film was only used for surveillance or for art prints that looked like they were printed on 60 grit sandpaper? Digital cameras are spoiling us, eh? Sort of like the microwave oven where we tap our feet and fret because the Lean Cuisine is taking THREE AND A HALF MINUTES when thirty minutes to heat something in a conventional oven used to be ok.

 

Anonymous reviewer - New York Times, circa 1890...

 

To each their own, but personally I tend to look at the picture, not the pixels.

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

[awboater]

Yea, I remember when even ASA 400 film was marginal.

[RCI_FADM_76]

The simple, 2 second act of rolling the ISO down on a digital camera to reduce noise (as the OP was concerned about noise) is such a simple thing. People complain about noise only to realize that they have their ISO setting way up high. Seems to me like it is the quickest, most effective way to get there...but that's just my opinion.

 

Listen to some and you'll heat your Lean Cuisine with the LHC...

 

Further, not all DSLRs are created equal. I could be using a 5D Mk2 and be sheepishly asserting "what's the problem" at ISO 1600...well, in this case its a T1i. Different sensor, different performance.

 

To the OP, the high ISO noise reduction setting is worth giving a try as well. Do a couple comparison shots with it at the different settings and see how they turn out.

[gavavemom]

My ISO can go down as low as 100. I've rented a 100-400mm lens for wildlife /whale watch photos and a 10-22mm for landscapes. Does it matter if the ISO is 100 on a cloudy rainy day? I will practice in both the Tv and Av modes. Thanks for the suggestions.

[TheRoff]

Hmm, time to chime in (and probably make a fool of myself.) This has been a good discussion on noise and high ISO, but unless I am totally missing something, the OP’s complete original question has not been answered. “On the T1i, there is a custom function you can set to reduce noise, called high ISO noise reduction and you can set to standard, low, and high. Is it recommended to change those settings?” According to this site the T1i does a pretty decent job at high ISOs and the in-camera custom function to apply noise reduction at high ISOs is pretty good. The problem as I see it for a whale watching trip is the turning on that custom function significantly slows down the processing of the camera. Take a picture and it is going to immediately send that image through its noise reduction process and you can’t take another photo until it has completed. In that time the whale is long gone back under water. It would seem that you want to get the maximum frames per second from your camera in this situation, and I would leave the noise reduction process off.

I would not be hesitant to crank up the ISO (with no in-camera processing) on that T1i and get yourself the highest possible shutter speed to try to stop the action of the whales.

 

Others have recommended software for noise reduction. Digital Photo Professional is processing software that I believe is shipped with most Canon Cameras. It has a very good noise reduction process. Just be aware that all noise reduction is a compromise and at high levels of processing your image will look fuzzy in the shadow detail.

 

I hope you get some great photos and post them heRE.

 

Larry

[chipmaster]

ROFL.. couldn't agree with you more :D

 

I'm still amazed that people freak out at a bit of noise at ISO1600 when viewed at 200% on a monitor (equivalent to viewing something like a 48"x72" print at 12" distance.

 

Does anybody remember when a high ISO film was only used for surveillance or for art prints that looked like they were printed on 60 grit sandpaper? Digital cameras are spoiling us, eh? Sort of like the microwave oven where we tap our feet and fret because the Lean Cuisine is taking THREE AND A HALF MINUTES when thirty minutes to heat something in a conventional oven used to be ok.

 

Anonymous reviewer - New York Times, circa 1890...

 

To each their own, but personally I tend to look at the picture, not the pixels.

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave