High ISO ... let's lose the noise

[DonSchap]

Came across an interesting posting that seems to improve High-ISO noise issues in the α700. I'm not talking about ISO-1600 ... heh ... how about ISO-3200?

Try these out, for size:

Under Creative Style = 'standard' ... but ... not your basic "Standard" but go down a few more selections and find the "switchable" '1 Standard'. You can decide on whatever you want witgh this, but out "Standard" in the there with the up/down arrow.



Under it, set your Saturation +1, Sharpness +2, Brightness -2, Zone matching -1;
DRO= DR+;
high ISO NR = 'high'
Save the whole shooting match under custom memory index "MR3"

This is your new low light shooting recall.



It should provide some impressive looking images under low light conditions (in this case, w/ Tungsten WB).

For further explanation , use this DPR link

Here the original test image

A700 w/ TAMRON 70-200mm f/2.8 lens
@ 200mm - f/2.8 - 1/60th - ISO-3200 - Spot Focus - Spot Metering - Tungsten Lighting (200W-w/lampshade 8-feet away)

100% Sample

w/o setting modification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . w/ setting modification
.

[dr4gon]

hmm, looks a little better, but overall just different (whitebalance, color, and detail). Perhaps slightly less noise, but I'd also say less detail. But I suppose with DRO on, these are JPEGed shots and since I only shoot in RAW (and don't have an a700) that this wouldn't be too helpful.

[DonSchap]

Well, perhaps Sean may enjoy these changes ... to improve on his night shots.

I just thought it was worth mentioning, since High-ISO can be problematic on many DSLRs. That flat blade area sure seemed to have cleaned up well. High-ISO is a rough area to get much improvement in. These setting changes seem to affect the image before demosaicing ... and that's as close to RAW manipulation as you can get with a JPEG.

[dr4gon]

There is less noise for sure and the 3200 sample here looks much better than that from my camera lol....

[DonSchap]

Well, here are a couple ISO-6400 samples, just to really push it:

w/o Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . w/ Settings
.

I think knocking down that saturation helps tremendously. Color noise is always a culprit.

[dr4gon]

Ok, there we go! That looks better Even the purple fringing is lessened!

[DonSchap]

Improvements all over the place!

[seanhoxx]

HMMM, this may be handy as we are about to go indoors, only have a few football games left. Don how do you think this will hold up at shutter speeds around 320, 400? I have also been setting white balance color temp to around 4500 - 4800 degrees also for the fields. I will try and play around with it a bit over the weekend.
we are done with soccer, our girls were elimenated on Monday night at sectionals with a loss. Pretty rough for my daughter as this was her last high school game.

[DonSchap]

Life goes on ... they say, even for athletes.

Well, the entire idea was dealing with higher ISOs ... shutter speed may not be at issue. I've just been playing with it, indoors. Been a trifle busy, this week, getting everything ready for the seasonal transition. I have this weird feeling winter may be exceptionally harsh this year. I hope I'm wrong.

[seanhoxx]

Don I am going to see a amatuer symphony band perform tonight. it is on the satge of a fairly large church, the stage is said to be 'reasonably" well lighted, I think I will try these settings and see what I can get. Any additional advice or suggestions? Thought about sitting in the balcony and shooting down, or should I be closer to the light? This will be no flash.