Heavy Grain - what went wrong?

[kate_shrews]

Thanks for your advice. I appreciate everyone's time and didn't mean to stir up any conspiracy theories about AI bots. I'm not sure how to reassure you that I'm a real person, so I'll leave it at that. Sorry for any confusion caused.

 

[PJM]

It looks as though they were taken with extremely high shutter speed and ISO. The high shutter speed reduces the light reaching the sensor requiring the higher ISO which can lead to grain. Try shooting again with lower shutter speed, say around 1/250, and reducing the ISO to match.

 

[Jeff15]

Hello and welcome, I agree with PJM....

 

[wfooshee]

Why in the world did you think you needed 1/5000 shutter?! I shoot jets at air shows and don't use that kind of shutter speed!

Also, if the images were lightened in post, that only accentuates the noise. Exposing properly, even at high ISO, is much better than underexposing and bringing it up in post.

 

[ClintLloyd]

I'd recommend looking into the exposure triangle. ️

 

[paigew]

Your exposure is what went wrong. You could have shot this at 1/200

 

[kate_shrews]

Thank you to everyone who shared their tips and advice - I greatly appreciate it. Do you think there’s any way I can fix these images? It is a problem on approximately 200 shots for a branding photoshoot. What is my best course of action? Thank you!

 

[ClintLloyd]

Thank you to everyone who shared their tips and advice - I greatly appreciate it. Do you think there’s any way I can fix these images? It is a problem on approximately 200 shots for a branding photoshoot. What is my best course of action? Thank you!

The easiest way is to use one of the Denoise AI programs. If you're using LR it has a great AI Denoise incorporated into it. If not, DXO and Topaz are great products too. I personally use DXO for single images, and LR for focus stacked images.

Just don't go overboard with the effect, otherwise it will make your images look synthetic really quickly. As has been stated many times on these forums, a bit of noise definitely isn't the end of the world.

You could also do some research and learn how to manually tidy this up a bit in the editing program you're using. But you won't get anywhere near the same results as Denoise AI in my opinion.

 

[paigew]

Thank you to everyone who shared their tips and advice - I greatly appreciate it. Do you think there’s any way I can fix these images? It is a problem on approximately 200 shots for a branding photoshoot. What is my best course of action? Thank you!

Yes you can save them. Do you use LR? I'd use their AI noise remover. Will take a while with 200 images.

 

[greybeard]

Your shutter speed 1/5000 is forcing your iso to 20,000 which is why there is so much noise (grain). Drop your shutter speed to 1/200 and that will let you bring down your iso around 1200 or less which will be a lot less noisy. The lower you drop your shutter speed, the lower and less grainy your iso will be. With that lens you could go as low as 1/30 handheld and even lower with a tripod.

 

[kate_shrews]

Thanks for the responses and advice. I totally understand what you mean about the grain in some photos but it looks worse when you open the image in full size. I've been working for 2 weeks straight (including nights) to edit and reduce the grain, and this is just one example of the best possible version for each one of the almost 200 photos. The reason why some images have grain is usually lack of appropriate lighting, something that happens quite often in reportage photography, is when the photographer tries to capture a moment that happens spontaneously, without focusing on posing their subjects or creating an ideal lighting setup.

During this shoot, the actions, poses and scenarios were very much led by the client, and I followed along with their vision without interfering too much, offering them the space to be themselves, capturing them in a way that felt natural and unforced. Personally, I don't normally do such spontaneous shoots. I follow quite a strict procedure that includes a clear shot list, and I move the furniture and lights around as necessary, to create an intentional frame and scene.

The good news is that the grain in the photos is almost invisible in print, and so is in the small version of each photo, when the client might use them online. Even the best photographers in the world produce grainy photos in low light situations. The main reason you see the grain so intense is mainly because of your large screen size.

Is there any reason why I can't deliver these images to the client as they are? I don't want to do any further work on this project.

 

[ClintLloyd]

Forget Denoise AI, I smell an AI Bot here...

 

[kate_shrews]

Forget Denoise AI, I smell an AI Bot here...

What do you mean?

 

[smoke665]

Forget Denoise AI, I smell an AI Bot here...

Hmmm, paid shoot, crazy exposure, doesn't recognize why there's noise, just joined yesterday.......antennas up.

 

[paigew]

Thanks for the responses and advice. I totally understand what you mean about the grain in some photos but it looks worse when you open the image in full size. I've been working for 2 weeks straight (including nights) to edit and reduce the grain, and this is just one example of the best possible version for each one of the almost 200 photos. The reason why some images have grain is usually lack of appropriate lighting, something that happens quite often in reportage photography, is when the photographer tries to capture a moment that happens spontaneously, without focusing on posing their subjects or creating an ideal lighting setup.

During this shoot, the actions, poses and scenarios were very much led by the client, and I followed along with their vision without interfering too much, offering them the space to be themselves, capturing them in a way that felt natural and unforced. Personally, I don't normally do such spontaneous shoots. I follow quite a strict procedure that includes a clear shot list, and I move the furniture and lights around as necessary, to create an intentional frame and scene.

The good news is that the grain in the photos is almost invisible in print, and so is in the small version of each photo, when the client might use them online. Even the best photographers in the world produce grainy photos in low light situations. The main reason you see the grain so intense is mainly because of your large screen size.

Is there any reason why I can't deliver these images to the client as they are? I don't want to do any further work on this project.

This is not an excuse. You need to learn flash. I have photographed births in pitch black and turned in usable, properly exposed images.

I would not deliver these images as you might get complaints and they are not usable for print or digital with that much noise. Did you try the noise programs recommended?