Why are my pictures so grainy if the settings are high

[b0tt094]

Hi, I have recently noticed while ptrinting my pics that they are oldly grainy...

i have the a s2 powershot set at (photo size and type) 2592x1944 and its are supersharp setting... but the pictures are really really grainy... icant show u the picture but I can tell yo the settings


iso 400
shutter speed 1/1600
f/2.7

i think its becuse of the iso?

 

[Butters]

COULD be the iso. just try lower ones to see if it is

 

[spicyapple]

It's the supersharp setting, most likely? ISO 400 is relatively grain-free as far as ISOs go, but that could also depend on the quality of the CMOS sensor and firmware.

 

[iGary]

It's probably set TOO sharp.

Sharpness algorithms induce noise.

And that's a wowie shutter speed.

 

[b0tt094]

sorry i men super fine... thats the highest quality setting on the camera

 

[iGary]

sorry i men super fine... thats the highest quality setting on the camera

Oh.

Well it is a really fast shutter speed and it's not 100 or 200 ISO...

Try this: http://www.picturecode.com/

 

[b0tt094]

thanks man Im goin to try that out from what i see it looks good... ill check back with comments. in a few hours i got another game to go take some pictures for

 

[clintob]

Looks like everyone is focusing (no pun intended) on the wrong thing here. You said when you PRINT your images they appear "grainy". By grainy, I gather you mean you see digital noise or jagged, unclean edges?

If this is the case, chances are the problem is your printer/color space/ink/paper and not the camera itself. Also, the S2 is only a 5MP camera so trying to print 8x10 might, at times, cause some degrading of quality.

What printer are you using, what paper are you using, and have you changed/cleaned the ink cartridges recently? Also, are you doing any manipulation to the photos on your computer first?

 

[Lau]

My Canon Powershot looks grainy (as in noisy) at 400 ISO on screen and in print.

As Gary said, that's a high shutter speed and so if you were to cut it to even 1/1000, or 1/800 you could drop the ISO.

I turned off the supersharp thing because it made the photos too sharp for my liking, and it looked horrible round the edges of things.

Do you have an example you could post here? (If it is just in print and doesn't show up on screen, like clintob says, it might be the printer).

 

[b0tt094]

well i cant show u the example because im entering it in a contest and It says NO PUBLISHING eletronicly or phycically...

ok back on subject WOW NinjaNoise is amzing.... it's just that watermrk... im goin to try and beat the system and find the watermark and delte it but i cant find it anyone who has please tell me... im lazy and cant buy... Im saveing up for a rebel and need all the money i can get so...ya

or post a free noise remove because that one worked wonders

 

[iGary]

well i cant show u the example because im entering it in a contest and It says NO PUBLISHING eletronicly or phycically...

ok back on subject WOW NinjaNoise is amzing.... it's just that watermrk... im goin to try and beat the system and find the watermark and delte it but i cant find it anyone who has please tell me... im lazy and cant buy... Im saveing up for a rebel and need all the money i can get so...ya

or post a free noise remove because that one worked wonders

I understand on the cost.

I use that program every single day. I love it. It has some very advanced features that just rock the house.

 

[beavo451]

It's the supersharp setting, most likely? ISO 400 is relatively grain-free as far as ISOs go, but that could also depend on the quality of the CMOS sensor and firmware.

It is the ISO. This is a tiny, point and shoot sized sensor which will have noise at 400. It's there at 100. Most P&S cameras have noise issues above ISO 100.

 

[apfhex]

It is the ISO. This is a tiny, point and shoot sized sensor which will have noise at 400. It's there at 100. Most P&S cameras have noise issues above ISO 100.

Yeah, it sounds like the ISO. It depends on the model... I would say plenty of P&S digitals do just fine at 100 or 200, but 400+ does tend to be pretty noisy.

 

[b0tt094]

ok ya i dont use my own printer i go down to cvs and do them... and im uploadin my pictures from today's game.... can any give a link to a free anti noise program because i love Ninjanoise program but i have to save my cash

3rd edit... lowered ISO and shutter speed... 1000000 times better... thanks

 

[ChrisA]

Hi, I have recently noticed while ptrinting my pics that they are oldly grainy...

What you are calling "grain" is what they call "noise". It can be reduced in post processing but you trade noise for sharpness.

To really get rid of it you ned a dfferent camera. But camera design is a trade off. The lower noise camera will have a physically larger CCD sensor and physically larger lens and cost and weigh more.

The route cause of this is the fact that light comes on packets called photons and in low light not many of these hit the very small pixels on the sensor and the noise you see is the result of the statistics of small numbers. Bigger pixels are the only real fix for this.

 

[ChrisA]

ok ya i dont use my own printer i go down to cvs and do them... and im uploadin my pictures from today's game.... can any give a link to a free anti noise program because i love Ninjanoise program but i have to save my cash

Free software... http://www.gimp.org

You don't need special anti-noise software. Just go in with a normal image editor like the above. Make some fuzzy selections of areas of the image that are most uniform, like the sky where noise is most noticable and aplly a slight gausian blur. Noise does not show in areas here ther is much detail.

Here it is in more detail
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Selective_Gaussian_Blur/

 

[b0tt094]

trust me i have gimp and I'm great at gimp but i need something directly targetted at noise reduction.

oo ya and sorry about the whole grain thing... old habits die hard

 

[srf4real]

I am getting better shots from your collective wisdom as well.

 

[b0tt094]

Ya i do want to thank everyone for they're help because it has made my pictures crisper and clearer, the only thing i need now is a link to a Free noise reduction program and i will be content for about 2 hours before i come back... i have horrible self infliceted OCD

 

[ChrisA]

trust me i have gimp and I'm great at gimp but i need something directly targetted at noise reduction.

Try one of the gimp plug-ins aimed at noise reduction. There are several. Here is one.
http://www.hphsite.de/dcamnoise/

Read "theory.html" on the above to see what this really does.

 

[compuwar]

Hi, I have recently noticed while ptrinting my pics that they are oldly grainy...

i have the a s2 powershot set at (photo size and type) 2592x1944 and its are supersharp setting... but the pictures are really really grainy... icant show u the picture but I can tell yo the settings


iso 400
shutter speed 1/1600
f/2.7

i think its becuse of the iso?

It may be, or it may be because the shot is underexposed. Underexposing pictures will add noise very quickly.

 

[compuwar]

ok back on subject WOW NinjaNoise is amzing.... it's just that watermrk... im goin to try and beat the system and find the watermark and delte it but i cant find it anyone who has please tell me... im lazy and cant buy... Im saveing up for a rebel and need all the money i can get so...ya

or post a free noise remove because that one worked wonders

Theft is wrong.

 

[ziwi]

Are you shooting in jpeg/raw or both? I have noticed that if you bring a raw (in this case .cr2) into iPhoto it can appear grainy. Check that - I made the mistake of placing a couple of the unconverted raw files in a calendar and they appeared grainy. It would seem odd that at iso400 with the canon sensor you would have that much noise.

 

[b0tt094]

jpeg... all the pictures have greatly increased in quality since dropping the iso and shuttter speed.... and i kno Theft is wrong I felt bad just for posting that, but w/e Im don't havecash and im saveing up for a rebel xt or xti with 70-300mm lens with a speedflah

 

[Voidness]

I use this for my personal photos. The demo version is fully functional for non-commercial use.

http://www.neatimage.com/

The windows version is a standalone program, but the Mac version is a photoshop plugin.