Forums
Sometimes, web forums have some real gems in the info from other users! Yes, I do browse a few photographic web forums and participate in some as well. Well, while browsing over @ DPReview tonight I came across one of those hints that looked pretty good. So, I checked it out for myself and sure enough -it was the gem I hoped it was!
There is generally a lot of controversy about high noise at high ISO settings. There is a lot of info on how to get the best results with your particular Camera - and this one applies specifically to the Olympus E300.
Yes, I usually shoot at the lowest ISO that I can, Yes, I am not afraid to crank it right up to 1600 when I need to. I have always had "mixed results" with a fair % keepers.
It all goes along the lines of shoot it right, then there is less PP to do!
The Tips that were relavent from the forums were: (at 1600 ISO)
Shoot in A (Aperture Priority)
Set the Meter to -0.3EV (Exposure Compensation)*
Set to +1EV for strong Backlit subjects
Do a Custom White Balance
Open the Aperture right up
Try and keep the Shutter Speed as high as possible
Use a Tripod/Monopod
Ok, now back to what I do. I shoot 99% of the time in A. The Last time I shot high ISO, It was of the Koala in the tree (800 ISO) and I did set the EV to +1.0 whith a strong backlight. I never bother doing a custom WB - I shoot raw and that can easily be fixed. Well, If I am going over 400ISO, I am shooting with the Lens wide open - otherwise I would try and get the shot at a lower ISO. I always try and keep the shutter speed around 1/1.5x lens length (ie 200mm zoom, 1/320 sec).
The whole Idea of shooting with a -0.3EV value in A mode is to actually tell the Camera to leave the shutter open a tad longer (collecting a bit more light). As noise is worse in shadows, it makes sense to expose for the shadows and get as much detail as possible.
So, on reflection, after a lot of trial and error, I am basically managing to shoot with the right settings to minimise the PP required.
Now the best tips regarding the noise removal were:
Removing Luminance removes detail - less is more - set to 15-30%
Remove 100% Chroma (Colour)
Do not remove any Low freq noise!
Sharpen to compensate for Luminance within Noise removal software.
What I did was to grab a couple of 800 ISO Images of the Koala from a week ago and tried the settings in Noiseware - and they sure improved. My past experience using Noiseware (my software of choice for noise supression) has also been mixed - sometimes I managed to get acceptable results, and other times I got a real "plastic" looking processed image.
Now, I know that these settings will be different for other Camera's. With this knowledge and understanding, It means that you have some starting settings to use to experiment with so you can get the best possible pictures no matter what Camera you use.
