canon s60 -- grainy photos

Jim Townsend wrote:
[]
The problem is the 400 ISO setting.. Cameras with the 1/1.8" sensors
usually produce quite a bit of noise at ISO 400 and higher.

The 1/1.8" sensor is tiny. As a result the sensor sites are
comparitivley small. Small sites can't collect that much light so
the output requires considerable amplification. The more
amplification, the more noise.

There isn't much you can do about it other than sticking to ISO 200
or slower.

Of course, you can use programs like Neat Image or Paint Shop Pro 9 to
reduce the visible noise in your image /after/ taking. If you are careful
and not over agressive, the results can be very good. Try it and see for
yourself.

David

wrote in message
...
On 10 Oct 2004 16:41:11 -0700, (Boris Libman)
wrote:

I've had my s60 for a couple months now, .....Generally, I have
my resolution set to highest with superfine compression, iso
typically set to 400 or auto............... many of my
pictures both indoor and outdoor come out somewhat grainy ........any
good suggestions?

First shoot at ISO100. If you must use a higher ISO due to exposure
requiremernts, there are a ton of image editing programs that will
reduce the noise (grain) and still leave the detail in your image.

Two free programs are DC enhance and Noiseware Community edition. If
you have PhotoShop or PS lite or Eliments use a little "smart blur"
filter or unsharp mask. Most image editors have some type of
noise/dust/scratch remover that wil lsmooth grain. Just search google
for "digital camera noise reduction" and you will get hundreds of
hits.

Personally I mostly use the Elements smart blur filter, set at radius
1.5 and threshold starting at 8.0 and increase as needed. This works
on my ISO 1000 D60 images.


Get Paint Shop Pro 9. Photo Shop CS, and Photoshop Elements 3 can't even
come close to the control over results that come from Paint Shop Pro 9's new
Digital Camera Noise Removal (DCNR) filter and the CA filter that does
amazingly well at getting rid of not only purple fringing but generally any
color of fringing in the area of high contrast edges. Of course you also end
up with loads of other useful features like curves, levels, fade correction,
scratch removal, vector drawing (complete) and vector text, plus art media
tools, image slicer, web slicer, animation shop, and that doesn't even
scratch the surface. Adobe created Elements in hopes of slowing Jasc down.
Adobe failed.

Linda
---------------------------------

Is Mac Linux? If so than I've seen a number of users saying they had no (or
little) problems setting PSP 9 up to run on their Linux systems using some
sort of conversion program (I think the name was Linsing or something
similar in name). Sorry don't know anyone using a Mac to be able to ask them
either.

Linda

"Jaxak" wrote in message
...
It does not run on Macs?

"Linda_N" wrote in message
...
"David J Taylor"
wrote in
message news

Of course, you can use programs like Neat Image or Paint Shop Pro 9 to
reduce the visible noise in your image /after/ taking. If you are
careful and not over agressive, the results can be very good. Try it
and see for yourself.

David
I agree. Paint Shop Pro 9 has a new Digital Camera Noise Removal filter
that is by far the best I've seen yet. PS has nothing that touches
(including 3rd party plug-ins) that comes close to the control and power
of Jasc's DCNR. I experimented with an ISO 800 shot from a P&S using
Noise Ninja, Neat Image, several techniques in PS, and finally PSP's DCNR
which beat them all hands down (although neither NN or NI were that bad.
PS by itself was not good at all in comparison.) Anyway that one filter,
plus the new CA filter that fixes fringing in high contrast area edges is
well worth the cost of Paint Shop Pro 9 even if you don't use anything
else in the program.

Linda.