backlit shot failure

[perfectpixel]

Hi All,
what went wrong here?!
I had what I thought was a nice backlit situation. Where did all this noise come from?!
Are there any hints or cautions regarding severe backlighting and digital capture?

10D, ISO 400, 1/1000, F6.3, EV+0.7, Fill flash (not sure if it fired)
http://www.pbase.com/image/27523256.jpg

Yuck! :?

[Jewel]

I'm a newbie too, so can't really tell you how to fix it. Photoshop can do some amazing things, but not sure to what level.

Awesome shot, though, really like the girl's hair in it with the backlighting.

[kanwingshing]

First of all.. ISO 400 would give you more noise...
Also, try to give you subject a bit of fill flash. But not too much, otherwise you would ruin the backlight effect.

[Radtech1]

Could we see the entire image, uncropped?

[Leighow]

If this was a Canon G2 -- it would be caused by some combination of ISO 400, cropping, long exposure with micro movement (hand held) and possible use of the blurr tool. I have seen this many times with my G2.

In fact I took 80 shots at two indoor hockey games (one arena) this week. The 1st , at ISO 400 was even a corser grain but I did not see any of your soft tinges as on the rocks. I choose this ISO to "stop action". Two nights later I dropped the ISO to 200 where the grain was only visible at large sizes.

Beautiful image. Must be Irish!

[EoSD30fReAk]

i agree on the iso 400 perhaps you should try iso 100 or 200 that will give you less noise

[perfectpixel]

you know, I understand the ISO 400 comments, but as you know, the 10D output at iso400 is very clean. As a matter of fact, I have shots immediately before/after this one that are not so directly backlit and those are fine.
Here's the full image you asked to see (resized for the wed):
http://www.pbase.com/image/27544719.jpg
I think my flash did not fire, and the noise is due to heavy underexposure. What do you think?!
The picture I had visualized sure looked better than the outcome :oops:
cheers.

[scotgasch]

What flash were you using? On camera? If so you can check the exif data to see if the flash fired. Either way, it is underexposed because of the bit of direct sunlight showing. And when brought back up in whatever software the noise will be much more apparent in the underexposed areas. Also how far away were you? The on camera flash is only good to about 10 feet or so.

[nomel]

hahah...it's a 10d guys. It's not the iso making the noise :)

Looking at the shots at dpreview.com for the 10d and G3

10d iso 400 noise then G3 iso 50 noise
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos10d/Samples/ISO/iso0400.jpg http://img.dpreview.com/reviews/canong3/samples/ISO/g3g2_iso050.jpg

the 10d has less noise at iso 400 than the g3 at 50...noticably less when side by side.


I have always had a theory about high shutter speeds and noise (I see you were using 1/1000s) . Maybe some tests should be done with similar conditions to those in your picture here, keeping the exposure constant, varying only the shutter speed.

[Leighow]

you know, I understand the ISO 400 comments, but as you know, the 10D output at iso400 is very clean. As a matter of fact, I have shots immediately before/after this one that are not so directly backlit and those are fine.
.

Gee .... now that I see the sun .. I am wondering whether this might be related to light somehow impacting the lens ... even though there is no major flare.

[nomel]

I don't know...the noise looks pretty "digital" to me, especially on the left, on her shirt. Looks like there are vertical lines of noise...unless that could have to do with polishing/grinding of the lens?

[ryuwulf]

i would suggest investing in NOise Ninja. All you do is open your picture in the app. Select the profile of the camera you used(ex: g5, iso 400 ). and press the removie noise button. Voila!!! that simple.

it smoothes out the noise so you get a very light haze.
I did some wedding pics, and noise ninja saved the day on a couple of great shots.
You can also batch whole pics.

very kewl.

NOISE NINJA RULES!!!!