Nikon D300 noise at 200ISO?

WingsOfLovePhoto

Ok....really REALLY frustrated!!! I did a huge photoshoot yesterday for a family of 32 people and for some reason all my pictures are full of noise! My D300 with a 70-200 2.8 lens was on ISO 200, using a SB600 in a shady location but with some backlighting. ALL my pictures are noisy? I used noiseware professional on them and now they look over processed. For a minute I thought is was because I was on continuous shutter but it was bad even when I switched it. Any ideas or advice? I did more photos today with the same issue. UGH. Thankfully the ones today were for free, I wouldn't expect to get paid for bad photos. HELLLLPPPPP!!!!! Here are some before and after examples

swintonphoto

I can't see major noise problems. All cameras produce noise if you look closely enough. It would help if you posted a closer crop of this image. But, from my initial look - seems fine to me on the 1st one, and yes - the 2nd one looks overprocessed.

ziggy53

Sandy,

Take a look at the first image on another monitor, preferably a CRT and not an LCD. I suspect your monitor setup is to blame for the appearance of excessive noise. Everything looks fine here. (I checked on 2 monitors.)

WingsOfLovePhoto

thanks for the comments. I have looked on 2 monitors a MAC and a PC and at a larger size I still see noise. This is in comparison to other photos I have taken prior to yesterday. I am used to crystal clear photos. To me these are noisy or pixellated. I will have a hard time making enlargements. Here is a larger version of the unedited. Am I seeing something that doesn't exist? Could it be a focus issue? The baby seems to be less noisy.

ziggy53

Not seeing any problems with noise. I suggest you run a commercial test print to be sure.

jonh68

Looks fine to me.

BBiggs

They look fine to me as well and I've noticed that when I print, even if there is a little noise on the monitor screen, it dose not show.

jonh68

If you see noise, the only thing I can think of is your monitor may be too bright.

davidweaver

Bump to Ziggy here too.

I don't see a problem at all. The D300 is very good with noise at 200 and even 800 iso. It's much better than a D200 above 400iso too. I own and shoot both.

I also use Noiseware Pro and have a script that does this with an image.
Copy Layer
Apply Noiseware
reduce layer opacity to 55%

This allows me to easily see the difference between NWP and without NWP. It also allows me to fine tune and even mask out some areas. For me, I find that a 55% opacity of noiseware at auto settings serves me well.

Art Scott

I am with Jonathon and Ziggy and David and others as well on this.....my 22" LCD shows no sign of noise......

Maybe your central scrutinizer is scrutinizing waaay too much.....give yourself a break.......and I now I am returning back to Frank Zappa's Trance Fusion and the Tibetan Book of the Dead................

Qarik

24 in LCD monitor..no noise that I can see

Cameron

Can you post a 100% crop and mark somehow an area where you're seeing noise? I'm not seeing anything other than a good-looking family - no noise!

WingsOfLovePhoto

Thanks so much for all the replies. Maybe my inner critic is getting the best of me. So what you are all saying is that this is a normal everyday professional photo? They just aren't like my other pictures, something seems a little off. I did print one of the processed ones out and there was no noise after using noiseware pro but was overprocessed. I am going to try it though at the 55% as suggested. Thanks again for the comments. I am still learning all the time. It helps to have more pairs of eyes

JAG

by chance have you looked in your sub menus on the D300 to see what setting your noise reduction was set on the camera? I discovered that lil sub menu last week when I was shooting at low light with an iso at 1600. It worked great! You need to up your sharpness just a tad on the camera though if you want crisp lines....depending on if you have the NR on the camera set to high or not.

Scott_Quier

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

Thanks so much for all the replies. Maybe my inner critic is getting the best of me. So what you are all saying is that this is a normal everyday professional photo? They just aren't like my other pictures, something seems a little off. I did print one of the processed ones out and there was no noise after using noiseware pro but was overprocessed. I am going to try it though at the 55% as suggested. Thanks again for the comments. I am still learning all the time. It helps to have more pairs of eyes

I think I would also print off an unprocessed version - just to see if what you see on the screen in any way translates to the print. Truthfully, I think the problem is all in your head.

But, if you were able to provide both EXIF information and 100% crops from a "good" one and from an area of this one where you see the noise you might get some better and more constructive help.

Working under the assumption that you are right and we are just not seeing it because we don't have access to full resolution files, is there any chance that these were under-exposed and brought back in post? I don't see the signs of this, just asking for the sake of completeness.

On a side note and since you are spending time processing these up, I might suggest you pay some attention to the teeth and brighten them just a bit - not too much but just a bit.

i_worship_the_King

I agree with everyone so far. I can't see a single speck of noise from those posts. When examining the guys (I'm assuming it's that velour stuff, or something similar) and you can see grains/lint/rubs that look like noise, but it's just the material.

I got nothing...

Trevlan

I see a tweak of noise, but you are right, at ISO 200 you shouldn't see any. One thing you can check, which I had to change recently, although you set your ISO to the desired speed, your camera might be choosing your ISO automatically.

On my Nikon D40, the ISO was set to auto but I had selected, in manual mode, ISO 200. And in the darker areas it was selecting ISO 1200! I went to the main settings and turned Auto ISO off.

Let me know if this helps.

NeilL

I stand to be corrected, but I think you would be most likely to find sensor noise in the mid-low tones of a photo which has a double-ended histogram (high peaks at both ends, very low middle region).

Looking at your larger-sized example at magnification, I see nothing that looks to me like typical color or contrast noise.

The most suspect area is the woman's top L. Here I see some variations in color across the material, with the mid-low tones of the sleeve and the folds of the front having what looks something like low frequency noise. I think these patches are too large to actually be noise. I think they are the sensor's attempt to render light and shadow on this underexposed material.

So, maybe look at your histogram type, eyedrop sample for luminance general areas under suspicion. Also check all the other things that have been suggested by the other posters.

N