The shots were very casual - at night, in the city center, discovering locations on the fly, making use of ancient architecture, and using whatever ambient light was bouncing around the streets. Discovering the Best Noise Reduction SoftwareĪ few years ago I started a side project photographing musicians in Madrid. Some high-end cameras certainly handle noise better than prosumer models, but every high-ISO photo could be improved upon with the help of noise reduction tools in post-production.

Shooting in low light with higher ISOs will introduce noise in the resulting image. Intentionally applied grain, like what you get from nostalgic old-school film, can be a beautiful aesthetic choice.īut unwanted noise can be quite extreme, and the detail in your photos will suffer. The Problem With Higher ISOs: Image Noise Many wildlife photographers, wedding photographers, photojournalists, and lifestyle photographers can relate: when your job is to capture - rather than create - authentic moments, there will often be some trade-offs to achieve the shot. Can you imagine popping off a flash during a sacred wedding ceremony or climbing a tree in the wilderness to set up a nice rim light for a perched eagle?

Flash photography is often banned or unfeasible in certain environments. The purists will argue: Why not add some artificial light to the mix, instead? Higher ISOs degrade the quality of your photo.īut controlled lighting is not always an option. When the right combination of aperture and shutter speed isn't enough to achieve a proper exposure, bumping up your ISO to handle low-light conditions is a given. Simply stated, higher ISOs dial up the sensitivity of your image sensor.

My primary light source is the sun in the golden hour, and my style is very breezy, natural, and spontaneous, which means I sometimes shoot at higher ISOs. Because of how I shoot and travel, including the desire to be less conspicuous for my own safety, working with strobes generally isn't appropriate for me. I'm a travel photographer shooting regional lifestyle photography for different agencies all around the world. Unlike studio photographers who can precisely control every aspect of lighting, I've been photographing most of my campaigns handheld in natural light for more than 15 years. My biggest post-processing challenge in photography is image noise.

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