Take Photos in Well – lit areas. If possible, photograph outdoors in daylight. The most flattering outdoor light usually occurs between dawn and about 9 a.m. and in the few hours before dusk. When indoors, using a flash or studio – type artificial light will eliminate noise.
Photograph At the Lowest ISO Possible. In good lighting, the subject is adequately and evenly lit so you can use a low ISO (64, 100 or 200).The higher the ISO, the noisier the photo. At low ISOs, noise should not be noticeble. And depending on the make, model, and type of camera, noise can be absent or hardly noticeable at ISOs of 800, 1600, and sometimes even higher. Photographers can decrease the ISO needed by changing the f – stop to “open up” the lens or using a slower shutter speed. For example, shoot at f4.0 instead of f5.6 or at 1/60th of a second instead of 1/100th of a second. Either of these two options will allow the camera to capture more light.
Use a Camera With a Large Sensor. Digital single lens reflex cameras (dSLRs) have larger sensors than compact digital cameras. The larger pixels of these dSLRs are more effective in capturing light falling on the subject and, therefore, produce images with less noise. The sizes of the sensors on compacts and even the light – capturing ability of these sensors differ. Before buying a camera, research its specs online by reading a review at a website where the cameras undergo impartial, expert testing or ask for advice at a reputable camera store.
Properly Expose the Photo. If you correct underexposed images with software, you introduce noise by fixing the photo. So, try to get the exposure right when capturing the image. Bracket, that is, take photos that under – and overexpose the photo after taking an image at the suggested camera meter reading. a
Use a Tripod Or Monopod. A tripod or monopod permits a wider lens aperture or lower ISO.
After Editing, Save Photos As TIFF Or PSD. After editing a photo, do not save it in the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format. Instead save it as a TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) image or, if using Photoshop, as a PSD (Photoshop Document) image. After editing the photo several times and saving it as a JPEG image five, six times or so, the quality of the photo gets worse and noise becomes more obvious. Saving an image as JPEG compresses it by thowing away some information about the file. So, each time an image is saved after editing, more information is lost. Saving an image as TIFF or PSD does not throw away image information. However,TIFFand PSD files are very large when compared to a JPEG file.
Use a High Pixel Dimension. Unless the photo is marked for the Web or computer monitors, where a low – resolution image of 640×480 pixels, for example, can be acceptable, photographers should take higher – resolution images. Higher resolution images have smaller pixels and, therefore, more pixels than low – resolution images. And the more pixels an image has, the less noise it has and the more detail it has. Images with a lot of detail produce better enlargements. It’s not a bad idea to take photos at a resolution of about 2800×2100 pixels or higher.
Software. Topaz Labs’ DeNoise is one noise – reduction software available. The Adobe products Photoshop and Lightroom have editing features to control noise. But Dfine 2.0 by Nik Software is the most powerful noise – reduction software on the market. It’s a plug -in to Photoshop, Lightroom and Apple Aperture.
Final Words. Noise is most obvious in the shadow or dark areas of a photo. However, it can appear in the skies or in parts of an image that are smooth and uniform and don’t have much color variation. Black and white images can have noise too.) Since you can’t always see noise on the small LCD screen of a digital camera, magnify the image on a computer screen to 100 percent or more to see if your images have noise.