Thom@s From Norway, joined Oct 2000, 11794 posts, RR: 55 Posted (1 year 10 months 3 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 1272 times:
I need some assistance with getting rid of grain and noise in the photos I take with my fairly new Panasonic Lumix FZ-18.
After returning from a holiday, I discovered that virtiually all photos that had not been taken in bright light were extremely grainy, and looked down right dirty.
Then I remembered that when I bought a previous Panasonic camera (FZ-20), I had to adjust something in the settings in order to reduce the noise and grain. But I haven't been able to locate it on my FZ18, nor do I recall where to look for this setting.
Sulman From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2004, 1978 posts, RR: 48 Reply 2, posted (1 year 10 months 3 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 1256 times:
You may find it's a particular issue on images where the shutter speed is relatively slow, say during daylight but overcast. I discovered that a polariser on a 300D can introduce rather a lot of noise in the sky, simply because the shutter speed is longer due to losing 2 stops (I never bothered opening up the aperture that much, can live with 1/200) it is simply a product of the way the images are processed in the thingummajig...you may not be able to do a lot about it. Discrete use of photoshop's tools can help, although I'm not knowledgeable about noise removal.
Thom@s From Norway, joined Oct 2000, 11794 posts, RR: 55 Reply 4, posted (1 year 10 months 2 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1237 times:
Thanks for the advise, I've set the ISO to 100 on all settings, and put the noise reduction setting on +1.
The main problem is that I don't really know which function to go for on the camera when taking photos. If say I'm at an airfield, and a plane suddenly approaches... I'll grab my camera, and then spend the next 30 secs figuring out which setting will be best to use. Scenery, sports, portrait, etc... and there are so many to chose from.. certainly compared to my previous FZ20.
Anyway, I would probably end up using the wrong function on the camera, resulting in me ruining the photo.
I feel as if I finally have a professional camera, but have become an amateur myself...
Lumix From United Kingdom (Scotland), joined Sep 2004, 114 posts, RR: 5 Reply 6, posted (1 year 10 months 2 weeks 6 days 6 hours ago) and read 1182 times:
Quoting Thom@s (Reply 4): I'll grab my camera, and then spend the next 30 secs figuring out which setting will be best to use. Scenery, sports, portrait, etc... and there are so many to chose from.. certainly compared to my previous FZ20.
I wouldn't use any of those modes.....it's best to stick with 'S' set at say 1/400 or 1/500 if conditions allow and let the 'fvalue find itself. Otherwise just use 'P' mode.....it does a fairly good job. You might need to dial in some + exposure compensation on dull days. Always use setting 2 for the IS.
The other thing to remember is to always to use the 'Largest ' 'Finest' setting for your JPEG's. or RAW, but the RAWs tend to be very noisy. I find the large JPEGs look very good when resized down to 1200 wide.
You really would best best to buy the Home Edition of Neat Image (the home version that plugs into Photoshop or Elements). It's not expensive and this allows you to use NI as part of your workflow. As with all the FZ cameras it really is invaluable!
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