Lots of Noise at ISO 200

[bookloveraz]

I've started noticing that I'm getting more noise in my pictures than usual. With ISO at 200 I wouldn't think that there would be that much noise... Is it due to the ISO after all or do you think something inside the camera needs to be fixed/cleaned? The camera is almost 7 years old and had a new censor put it 2 years ago.

[inkista]

Can you post a sample?

[bookloveraz]

This probably isn't the best example, but I see it a lot in skies, so I picked this one. This was taken a little over a week ago.

[inkista]

It's probably due to underexposure. The moon is going to be a lot brighter than the rest of the scene, given that it's directly sun-lit.

Darker portions of the frame tend to show up noise better than lighter ones, so avoiding underexposure helps with noise. You could try "exposing to the right"--that is, shift the exposure to be lighter (without blowing your highlights), and then bring the exposure back down in post processing. That should help eliminate some of the noise. Also, using noise-reduction software can help.

That actually doesn't look that bad for a small sensor P&S.

[bookloveraz]

Okay I get it. Is that why this picture doesn't have as much? It was taken at the proper exposure a few seconds later.

[inkista]

Yup. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Underexposure can cause more noise than bumping up the ISO level.

[bookloveraz]

Thanks for your time and help!

[OsmosisStudios]

Also looks a little like youve got some artifacting.

[bookloveraz]

What is artifacting?

[OsmosisStudios]

When you save an image in a lossy compression format, like JPG, you get some artifacts from the process. These artifacts can show up as blotchiness, noise, etc.