Noise in RAW question

[Seeking~Zen]

Hey everyone, I just started shooting in RAW and came home with some very noisy shots. I was shooting indoors with no extra lighting and some photos came out super grainy. I've never had this problem with JPEG...did I do something wrong? ISO was at 400, f3.5 to f4 or so

[Jim Bryant]

Your were under exposured in the shadow areas. You need to go ISO 800 or above for shooting indoors without a flash. Post a picture so that we can see.

[jpitz31]

Shooting with a higher ISO, if anything is going to produce more noise and grain not less, unless you have a high end pro camera such as Jim's 1Ds Mk II,

If you were shooting 400 ISO when shooting jpg and not getting noise or grain then it could be related to whose RAW converter you are using. You did not include an image or mention whose RAW converter your are using. Try the RAW converter that came with your Camera (if Sony makes one) Then try the Adobe RAW converter and see if there is a difference.

Also look at the histogram in your editing software and see if you let your shadows fall off too low.

The goal is to shoot as low ISO as you can to maintain the best image quality, and get in to the habit of checking your histogram when shooting in conjunction with using your light meter.

A histogram is a graph that shows the shadows, mid-tones and high lights of an image.
The left most part of the graph show the shadows, the center of the graph shows the mid-tones and the right side shows the high lights. A technical correct photograph will have the image with the shadows, mid-tones and high lights within the boundaries of the graph. If the image falls off either end of the graph you loose detail in the shadows or high lights. If you have some editing software, like photoshop or photoshop elements you can view a histogram of your images and make minor adjustments to the levels of the image.

Thanks

Joe

[teaking]

Also remember RAW files have little processing applied... I say little because they have passed through an A/C to D/C converter so thats about all thats happened to them. They will show more noise because they havent had any noise reduction applied it is applied in the processing software unlike alot of JPEG files which some camera's apply a level of noise reduction using built in algorithms and image processors some argue they do a better job but thats another thread

[Doug Pardee]

What teaking said.

A Raw file is unprocessed. It is your responsibility to apply noise reduction during the post-processing work. Whereas with JPEG you have to take whatever noise reduction the camera does, with Raw you can determine exactly how much noise reduction, of what kind, to apply to what parts of the image. Some Raw converters have built-in noise reduction features; with the others you'll have to do the noise reduction in your photo editor.

(In truth, a few camera models are now doing some noise reduction on Raw data, thus making it "not really raw".)

[kirbinster]

Joe, while generally you get more digital noise at higher ISO values that is not always the case. You will have much more noise with an underexposed shot at ISO 400 than a correctly exposed shot at ISO 1600. I have taken well exposed shots at ISO 6400 with a D90 that look just fine, and under exposed shots at ISO 200 that look like crap.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by jpitz31

Shooting with a higher ISO, if anything is going to produce more noise and grain not less, unless you have a high end pro camera such as Jim's 1Ds Mk II,

As Kirbinster said, this is false. Shooting a higher ISO and getting a better exposed image will make noise significantly less apparent.

[Seeking~Zen]

Thanks for your suggestions everyone...I'll look into what I did more closely and try to upload a photo here. I'm completely new to this site and truthfully having difficulty navigating it.

Cheers
Scott

[Seeking~Zen]

Thanks again for all the responses everyone. When I opened the file in the raw processing software (sony's supplied) the noise was no longer there. I'm now wondering if this was actually a problem in viewing the RAW file with Picasa. I took bracketed sets and only some had noise. I converted/resized this photo and the only alteration was to lighten it slightly....sort of miffed. I'm guessing this was a software issue.