Grainy and unclear shots of people

[eeriana]

I am having a problem with shooting people... I am shooting in RAW mode...highest resolution on my camera and it seems like the backgrounds are clear but the people, skin tone and stuff, are grainy and patchy... I am not sure if it is the focus that is off, the lighting or what. I am enclosing a link to a sample and if anyone has any suggestions, it would be appreciated....
This is a practice shot... so composition was not my main priority... just taking some shots of the style I like trying to get the settings right before I take some final shots...

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

Thanks,

Amy

[candleman]

thats noise.

so you understand ISO ?
the higher the ISo (the more sensitive the sensor) the more "noise" is created.
thats what your problem is i reckon.
(you can see its more pronounces in shaded/dark areas)
drop the ISO back and it will go away,
but if you're shooting AUTO you wont have any control over it.
you need to go Aperture proirity, manual, Programmable--Auto or Shutterspeed proirity.


http://digital-photography-school.com/iso-settings


this might also be helpful
http://digital-photography-school.co...-for-beginners

[inkista]

Looks to me like the focus is off, and you may be having a problem with camera shake blur, so check your shutter speed is 1/focal_length or higher (e.g., if you're shooting with a 100mm lens, that your shutter speed is 1/100s or faster). Check your handholding technique, and make sure that you're not underexposing. Use the lowest ISO level you can to get a good exposure. Underexposing can sometimes cause more noise than bumping up an ISO level.

[eeriana]

I used a tripod and a 1/640 shutter value, f4.5 iso 100 with a focal length of 10.5 mm.
Are those not correct?

Thanks again for the help

Amy

[candleman]

Originally Posted by eeriana

I used a tripod and a 1/640 shutter value, f4.5 iso 100 with a focal length of 10.5 mm.
Are those not correct?

Thanks again for the help

Amy

ISO100...
surprising amount of noise for iso100..

10.5MM
sounds like a P&S camera to me... so chances are its the quality of the sensor.

OR, (this is an unlikley stretch)
these are pixels we are seeing.. what was the "straight out the camera" resolution?

what sort of camera is it?

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by eeriana

I used a tripod and a 1/640 shutter value, f4.5 iso 100 with a focal length of 10.5 mm.
Are those not correct?

Thanks again for the help

Amy

You must have been using a P&S camera: a 10.5mm lens on an SLR would be a fisheye.

With P&S cameras, the sensor is so small that noise is inevitable, even at base ISO.

[eeriana]

It is a Canon S3 IS. It was pretty decent for my price range. I wanted to be able to control things manually.. I eventually want a good SLR. The backgrounds ie. the wall, look relatively clean and clear... not like the person, the skin tones in particular....


Thanks

Amy

[Taallyn]

You don't see the noise on the wall because the wall's texture is hiding it. Unfortunately, you're model doesn't have crocodile skin to hide the noise in. You can try some noise reduction in post processing (Gimp, Paint.Net, Photoshop, etc.) which will even the skin tones out some. That is actually one way that the fashion magazines make the models' skin look so smooth. They will use a blur filter or selected noise reduction to even out the skin tones.

[eeriana]

Thanks for all the replies... I use GIMP but am not sure about the noise reduction it has... I will play around and see if I can figure it out. I will just try to use the lowest ISO that I can... I have the CHDK loaded on my camera so I can override the default values, at least until I can afford a full SLR. This one does pretty good for landscapes... it's just the skin tones and such that I am trying to fix.....

Thanks again

Amy

[kencaleno]

"1/640 shutter value, f4.5 iso 100 with a focal length of 10.5 mm. " This translates to:

"1/3 EV stop overexposed at ISO 100 - F 13 - focal length of 60mm on a dslr"


Solution to problem:

a) Have adequate lighting

b) Use tripod and self-timer

c) Set Exposure compensation at: - 0.3 (-1.3 EV)

d) Use spot metering


For noise reduction(if you don't have Photoshop CS+) :

Use lasso tool to make a selection of the noisy area, then use blur tool at 5%-20%

Regards, Ken