Noise at night

[beavo451]

well, thats of course one part. but basically all colors are very vivid. that's why i asked for the weather conditions, distance and so on. i still suspect that good glass is a large part of it.

Hazy with cloud cover. ~1-1.5 miles away. Curves adjustment in PS and some cloning out dust specks in the sky. Sharpening with USM.

I knew I paid that much for a lens for a reason!

 

[Abstract]

Should have just invested more in Adobe products instead.

 

[andiwm2003]

well, my try with the sony kit lens 18-70 at 28mm, 20sec, f7.1, iso200

no PP. JPEG as it comes from the camera, downsized in iphoto to 900x602.

some clear jpeg artifacts in the sky, even at full res.

 

[maxi]

In case anyone cares for further comparison:
Nikon D70 with stock lens at 18mm, f7.1, ISO 200 and 13s exposure.
Resized and auto colors in photoshop (street lights were far too yellow and my battery only lasted for 2 shots).

It was taken a week ago, I see no blatant noise... maybe because it was a really cold night .

 

[Abstract]

Is this all due to the high pixel count, or is it poor in-camera processing?

I recall reading somewhere that the D50 handles noise better than any other Nikon camera, and that the D200 doesn't handle noise nearly as well. Since both cameras use the same Sony sensor, maybe this is the type of noise that you're gonna get in warm-ish weather at ISO 800, 1600, etc?

Wish I could post a photo of a cityscape at night, but most of my shots at night have been on boats and not the sharpest due to the motion of the boat, or waves. Here's one I didn't take with a tripod, but it was resting on something.

"Brisbane"
ISO 800
focal length: 32 mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter: 1/8 seconds
Lens: Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8
Camera: Nikon D50

Noise from my D50 tends to be worse if the scene is shot using a "warmer" WB setting. I used the "shade" WB setting because I really like it, but at ISO 1600, the noise is unbearable sometimes and I have to make the photo "cooler" to lessen the noise. It's still warmer than it should be if I don't make it as warm, but I'm better off just not using "shade" anymore at ISO 1600.

"Eagle Pier"
ISO 1600
focal length: 24 mm
Aperture f/2.8
Shutter: 1/13 seconds
Lens: Sigma 24-70 mm f/2.8
Camera: Nikon D50

I don't have a shot handy at night using ISO 1600 and without the "shade" WB on me.

 

[beavo451]

The reason why the lights will show up yellow is the fact that they are some kind of HID light. These types of lights produce a very strange color shift in pictures. Their color temperature isn't quite anything else out there. If you balance so that the lights are white, everything gets a greenish cast. If you balance the scene correctly, the lights will appear slightly yellow.

Noise is more evident in a warm picture because of the contrast between the yellower overall tone and the dark noise.