Why the grain? Help!

I hope this is the right section of the forums for this.

I realize that there are lots of variables, I tried to keep this as pure as possible. Does anyone know why the sky (and its all over the photo, but the sky shows it best) is so pixeled and grainy?

First the process... 2 images 1 a crop, the other unaltered. Shot on a canon 40d in raw. Taken into lightroom, and exported as a jpg. The issues exist even in lightroom as raw, and at both 400 and 800 iso. only sharpening is the lightroom standard 25/1.0.

I am shooting at 8mp, and posting at 1000x1000 (approx) I have a hard time beliveing that the crop caused it. It even appears when I look at the image a 100% on the screen without the crop... in fact it does not get worse when I look at the crop, so I doubt the crop is effecting it.

A over crop showing the grain I am speaking of. I realize that the over crop makes it look worse than it is, but I thought it might be easier to see this way.

Well, I'm not surprised that there would be some noise from a 40D shot at ISO 800, and yes, when you have a nice blue sky digital noise can show! I'd just apply some Lightroom noise reduction and it should be fine -- it's not like it's harsh.

An alternative to using the global Noise Reduction slider would be to open a Local Adjustment brush, "zero" all the settings except the Sharpening slider. Slide that all the way back and brush it over the sky and see how it does.

tonylong wrote in post #13647574
Well, I'm not surprised that there would be some noise from a 40D shot at ISO 800,...

I'm wondering why you needed the DOF from using f/11? Maybe f/8 & ISO 400 would have worked better for cutting the noise.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #13649068
I'm wondering why you needed the DOF from using f/11? Maybe f/8 & ISO 400 would have worked better for cutting the noise.

I was playing around with a new lens, and I was going from very bright to very dark, and wanted to keep my shutter speed up. Since I was trying to figure out the physical part of managing a large lens, and tracking BIF, I was not too worried about changing the camera settings.

I was expecting more. I was pixel peeping my shots from my new Bigmos and checking to see how focus was doing, and I was surprised by the noise. I guess I just don't look that close normally. I understand better now, have done some reading on noise reduction in lightroom.

Looks like I need to start saving up for an 80D (yea, I know, but it will be out by the time I have the money)

All digital cameras produce some noise, and when and how that noise becomes noticeable depends in various variables, one being the characteristics of the sensor being used, one being the light being captured via the aperture and shutter speed and then the amplification of the higher ISO, which makes low light together with collected noise more visible, and then there are things like that blue sky, which in good light is nice and clean, but with lower light/lower exposure/high ISO, can show noise.

And, the 40D is an "older" generation of sensor meaning that noise can become more noticeable at lower ISOs than the newer generation, and then there are the larger "full frame" sensors that show less noise at the same ISOs, although, like I said, no digital camera is noise free, and even the newer sensors can show noise at ISO 800 under the "right" (wrong) conditions.

The good news is that at a normal print/viewing size the noise you see at 100% is barely if at all perceptible. But, if you print large or crop close, well, what you see is what you see. This is where noise reduction becomes a real friend to those of us who shoot things such as wildlife.

If you are using the LR sharpening defaults, that means that Mask is at 0. Which in turn means that you are sharpening the sky and sharpening the noise. Increase Mask while holding down Alt/Opt (which turns the image to black & white) until the sky turns black. This will remove the sharpening from the sky.

tzalman wrote in post #13649682
If you are using the LR sharpening defaults, that means that Mask is at 0. Which in turn means that you are sharpening the sky and sharpening the noise. Increase Mask while holding down Alt/Opt (which turns the image to black & white) until the sky turns black. This will remove the sharpening from the sky.

Good point!
For those not using LR, A few words on SHARPENING:

Sticky: Sharpening Tips & Tricks, Tutorials, and FAQ