Do you have a noisy picture (or two)?

[sapiendut]

With point-and-shoot digicam, you tend to get high digital noise if you're using 200 ISO or higher. Sometimes the noise level is so high the picture is unuseable.

If you have a picture or two that needs noise removal, you can PM me and I'll give you my e-mail address and clean up to two pictures per person for ABSOLUTELY FREE (everything is via e-mail anyway).

Absolutely no fund transfer, absolutely undisputedly free of charge.

Hope I can help.

 

[dpic]

If you have noise problems in most any photo (grain problems, too), I use Neat Image. It's a great program, and you can get it either stand-alone or a plugin for Photoshop.

 

[SnoWhiteRabbit]

Please explain noise....I am a new digital camera user. Had been using a nice 35 mm for almost 20 years, started when I was 16, and have newly switched to a digital camera. I have a Nixon Coolpix 4 megapixel camera, whcih I thought was meant to be decent, and I was recently disappointed with several of my photos this trip. Some of the time my kids are practically pix-a-lated like something on a tv show!! I think I may have used the "basic" setting" as opposed to the "best" setting because I was worried about space...I'm not sure, but I think so. Can these pictures be fixed with something like Photoshop? Also, does a memory card tend to yield a lower quality photo over time, with so many photos taken and erased?? I'd love to hear some feedback on this, since I'm new to this! Thanks!!

 

[sapiendut]

Please explain noise....I am a new digital camera user. Had been using a nice 35 mm for almost 20 years, started when I was 16, and have newly switched to a digital camera. I have a Nixon Coolpix 4 megapixel camera, whcih I thought was meant to be decent, and I was recently disappointed with several of my photos this trip. Some of the time my kids are practically pix-a-lated like something on a tv show!! I think I may have used the "basic" setting" as opposed to the "best" setting because I was worried about space...I'm not sure, but I think so. Can these pictures be fixed with something like Photoshop? Also, does a memory card tend to yield a lower quality photo over time, with so many photos taken and erased?? I'd love to hear some feedback on this, since I'm new to this! Thanks!!

For digital noise, I use Noiseware Professional Edition.

For pixelation problem, quite unfortunatley there is nothing can be done. Always use the highest setting (the lowest number of pictures can be taken) to yield the best picture quality.

A 4MP camera is the bare minimum because the camera is taking a 4:3 ratio so when you're printing a 4x6, the ratio needs to be cropped to 3:2 (you're losing some pixels there. So your 3:2 area is actually only around 3.2 MP.

Memory cards do go bad over time but usually not gradually. My rule of thumb is after every download to the PC, I format the card inside the camera using the camera. After 2 years, sell the card (I know, I'm losing money) and buy a new card. Just to be on the safe side.

 

[DisneyVillain]

Please explain noise

It's the digital version of the "grain" you are used to seeing in 35mm photography. As with 35mm, it is more pronounced at higher ISO. The biggest difference is that grain is random, while noise tends to be more patterned. For this reason, noise is more undesireable than grain. However, because it is not random, it is possible to remove it (to a degree), with software.

 

[sapiendut]

^^ what he said ^^

 

[DisneyVillain]

ABSOLUTELY FREE

Why?

Testing new software, or just altruistic?

 

[sapiendut]

The latter.

Especially because I know the feeling of having pictures that compositionally good but ruined by unintentional high ISO noise (for example, certain cameras automatically boost the ISO setting to 400 when using Night Portrait mode)

I want to try to salvage those images for fellow DIS members.

 

[sapiendut]

Here's a sample of before and after picture.

http://groups.msn.com/digitalpixiedust/shoebox.msnw?Page=Last