graininess!! (1 Viewer)

sparrowbirder · Nov 10, 2003

Have noticed since i got my CP4500 ive been getting a lot of pics which are not as sharp as id like,they are coming out very grainy.. at first I thought I had the camera on the wrong ASA setting, ive included a shot here i took today, I checked the camera straight away and it was definately on 100 iso when i took the shot, any ideas what is going wrong here, is it something in the processing which is causing this,, any help appreciated
andy p

Andy Bright · Nov 10, 2003

Can't see any image attached to your post, maybe you could try again....as that would help the dignosis. A grainy effect shouldn't really have much to do with image sharpness, though a shot at iso100 should be fairly free of noise.

sparrowbirder · Nov 10, 2003

nothing happens when I press the Add this file button must be a problem with the browser or something

sparrowbirder · Nov 10, 2003

better late than never!!

Andy Bright · Nov 10, 2003

I don't like the look of that, I vaguely remember someone else sending me an image with a similar problem...I'll check to see if it's in my mail archive.

Pesrsonally, I think it's a camera problem. Is it appearing in all your shots? I've checked your photo's exif data and everything looks o.k. to me as far as how the shot was taken. If anyone else can offer some clue as to it's origins, fire away.

sparrowbirder · Nov 11, 2003

andy here is the original pre processed pic

sparrowbirder · Nov 11, 2003

really having problems with adding files to my messages at the moment

jayhunter · Nov 11, 2003

So it is grainy, you digi camera aces are too pernickity. I would be dead chuffed with a result like that from my 3000mm lens Taukamar and Pentax combination. It has obviously been taken from a distance, so digiscope resolution is far superior to SLR.

Ruby · Nov 11, 2003

Hi Andy,

It's a very nice photo - it would be a stunner if it was pin-sharp.

I am no expert (far from it) but I wonder whether the very obvious graininess in the first picture has actually been caused by an attempt to sharpen up an out-of focus original.

I notice that the bird is not in the exact centre of the frame, and wonder whether this has slightly fooled your camera's auto-focus.....

...or maybe not, if all your pics are like this....

Ruby

digi-birder · Nov 11, 2003

I agree with Ruby, it looks like the first pic has had some noise introduced by the sharpening or it is the auto focus being fooled by the bird's position.

The second pic shows exactly what I was getting with the majority of shots taken with my (ex) Coolpix 995. The camera appeared not to want to focus properly, even with the focus bracket right over the subject. It was very hit and miss as to whether I got the subject in focus. Even when it looked OK in the camera, once downloaded onto the computer it looked like your second photo.

My other thought is that it could be camera shake.

Andy Bright · Nov 11, 2003

I thought the first one was out of the camera, without major processing. With that in mind it now looks like it's been overcooked in NeatImage or something, the grainy artifacts looked familiar. What form of processing did you use? The chroma noise effect is unusual...look at the image at 67% zoom and it looks very bizarre

O.K. Now we are just left with why the bird is very soft. I noticed that you were on full camera zoom when you took the image...the better images come when you drop down a bit on the camera zoom. I would say that the camera has picked the bird out with it's AF but heathaze may have played a part in softening things.
I'll presume the subject was optimally focused via the scope.
Regards,
Andy

Adey Baker · Nov 11, 2003

I think Andy Bright is right with his comments on the lens being at full stretch. Also, very slight amounts of focus-error or camera shake can just take the 'edge' off a photo.

If 'unsharp-masking' is giving problems with unwanted digital effects then one way of improving the 'look' of the shot is to use the 'contrast' or 'levels' controls in 'Photoshop.' They won't make it actually sharper but at least it will 'appear' a bit snappier, especially if you don't print it too large!

I've taken the liberty of adjusting your shot in 'levels':

Adey Baker · Nov 11, 2003

I've over-done it a bit to 'exaggerate' the effect but it gives an idea of what you can do - just play around with the 'levels' sliders till you get the effect you want.

Adey

sparrowbirder · Nov 11, 2003

I use photoshop 7, just pleased it sounds like something ive done rather than a problem wirth the camera, the shot looked ok in the viewfinder though, cant see how the percieved "graininess" has come through..ive had a few shots like this,even the cattle egret in my gallery has come out slightly "grainy" its always worse when you print them out though!!

Andy Bright · Nov 11, 2003

sparrowbirder said:
I use photoshop 7, just pleased it sounds like something ive done rather than a problem wirth the camera, the shot looked ok in the viewfinder though, cant see how the percieved "graininess" has come through..ive had a few shots like this,even the cattle egret in my gallery has come out slightly "grainy" its always worse when you print them out though!!

As Adey say's, a play with the levels in Photoshop can help a great deal (and you can rectify any blown out highlights that you may have caused with the history brush in PS7).
What do you do in Photoshop to get this 'grain', as the shot out of the camera doesn't seem grainy to my eyes.
I've attached a quick fix of your out of the camera shot...Just used unsharp mask at 120/1.1 and threshold value of 2. Then touched up a few parts with the sharpen tool (in the tools palette) set at a level of 10%. I also went into hue/saturation adjust and selected blue (stretched the botton slider to encompass magent as well) and desaturated to remove the colour fringing. A dab with the 'dodge' tool (lollipop tool in tools palette) set at 10% and set to lighten shadows... just to get a bit more detail on the birds head.

sparrowbirder · Nov 11, 2003

obviously I must have just overcooked things in photoshop.must admit I dont tend to use unsharp mask much ,normally by pressing shaarpen more a couple of times and then messing with the levels etc i can norlmally get something half decent,,most of my pics do tend to need quite a lot of sharpening, i never get a sharp one straight out of the camera,,I put this down to my scope (ts821) not being as good as the higher end range,,most are softly focused (almost "hazy") at times
must admit andys version of the stonechat has come out better than mine..thanks for the advice everyone

Andy Bright · Nov 11, 2003

I was going to ask if you were using a non-fluorite Kowa, as they often produce a cloudy effect around the subject. Check out http://www.digiscoped.com/Digiscopingwithphotoshop.htmlThe American Kestrel was taken with a Kowa 821 (or 822). One of the problems with standard glassed scopes is that they don't deliver such a high contrast image to the user, in digiscoping this makes things a little harder when judging spot-on focus via the camera's monitor. Digiscoping pushes the scope's optics to it's limits, where-as your eye/brain corrects things to some extent when you are using the scope for normal birdwatching.
I'd certainly advise you to use unsharp mask in the future.

sparrowbirder · Nov 11, 2003

interesting thread ,thanks,looks like ill have to take a bit of time out practising my photoshop techniques,, must admit i always sharpen images first,I havent had very good results the other way ( the sharpening doesnt work if i adjust levels etc first,,why is this) do i have to save first and then sharpen...must seem like very basic questions these!!

Andy Bright · Nov 11, 2003

sparrowbirder said:
must admit andys version of the stonechat has come out better than mine..thanks for the advice everyone

Not compared to your first image, as that was of a higher resolution and there's more detail in there. Here's a repair of the first pic, which only entails masking off the subject and using gaussian blur on everything else. Quite often it's better to only sharpen what needs to be sharpened, so use selection tools (lasso and/or quickmask) and just apply the sharpening to the subject.
Regards,
Andy

sparrowbirder · Nov 11, 2003

andy,how do you check the exif data on a photo is it in properties thanks andy p

graininess!! (1 Viewer)

Well-known member

Administrator

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Administrator

Well-known member

Well-known member

Attachments

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Administrator

Member

Attachments

Member

Well-known member

Administrator

Attachments

Well-known member

Administrator

Well-known member

Administrator

Attachments

Well-known member

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread