Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic - Photographing clouds

RosaMystica7 · Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 267 Location: New York

I have an Olympus Stylus 410 Digital and have been messing around with taking pictures of clouds. But a majority of them have turned out fairly noisy. Any tips?

bluliq · Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 337

try to lower your ISO and/or use noise reduction software.

RosaMystica7 · Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 267 Location: New York

What does ISO mean?

screenfx · Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 171 Location: Colorado

ISO is a setting on your camera (not all cameras) that adjusts the light sensitivity of your digital camera. With a higher ISO you can use a lower shutter speed and f-stop. The drawback with many digital cameras is that it creates noise. Check your user manual for ISO settings and use 100 or 200.

RosaMystica7 · Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 267 Location: New York

Okay, thanks! But lower shutter speed... I don't have a tripod, so my photo would be horribly blurry.

ragnarawk · Joined: 21 Feb 2005 Posts: 247 Location: Toronto

Nah, by lower shutter speed, I think he means faster. That is, the time of exposure is lower.

Higher ISO (International Standards Organization) means the sensor/film is more sensitive to light, so you can get away with a faster shutter. The drawback of high ISO is a lot more noise/grain. Lowering the f-stop will actually widen the aperture, also letting in more light. You should be careful with this when shooting things that are closer, though, as a more open aperture will narrow the depth of focus.

Now, I'm not sure what will end up giving you more light while reducing the quality the least, but you can figure it out by experimenting. I haven't fiddled with the ISO settings much on my camera (an Olympus also) - I keep that at 50. You might also want to shoot with SHQ JPEG instead of the default HQ (I think you should be able to do that). I'd recommend using TIFF mode, but it takes a long time for the processor to digest that and the memory card can only handle a few of 'em.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you though, with respect to noise, is to get some of the free software out there - Noiseware, Noiseninja, or NeatImage. All have downloadable demo or freeware versions. I have to put all my images through it, otherwise I'll get rejected for noise. That takes a bit of tinkering, too, but it pays off.

4wd · Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 2 Location: Yorkshire, UK

Sometimes you can select the sky in processing and a light gaussian blur filter will give a useful improvement.

Patrick Hermans · Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 347 Location: belgium

RosaMystica7 · Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 267 Location: New York

Thanks guys! Patrick I like the sound of that program, so I'll try it first!

Nir Levy · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 282

Also using a tripod helps...

swalls · Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Posts: 18

A tri pod would really help in low light situations. I use mine all the time but I have found that shooting clouds generally is a situation where plenty of light is available to shoot with a shutter spped of at least 160 or more. That should easily be a hand held shot. Just a note, even with my 6.5 megapixle Canon Reble I will have problems sometimes with noise in clouds and sky.

Pete Bax · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 1238 Location: Brighton England

I have an Olympus with the same problem and my camera as a low noise setting on it but it is a bit hard to find.
Also I have found on settings below F 4.5 you can get many problems and you need very good light. I have just laid out for their pro flash f40 but it dosn't always cure the problem although their bounce is execelent.
I use photoshop to cure noise on a setting of mediant one and then fade but nearly always have to sharpen a little. The thing I like about photoshop is you can issolate bad areas of your picture and use noise on them leaving good areas crisp. I have tried other noise tools but always go back to photoshop.
I'd be interested in what "andre r "uses to cure noise his pics are so clean, and "liv" or Bella Media. The best cloud pictures (and night) I have taken have all been on f8 useing a tripod, you can't take good pics without one, Finally in my opinion there is no cure for noise and the best answer is don't get it in the first place. Keep you camera cool, switch it off between shots,
and clean your lens, especially if it is humid.

GeneralE · Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 1:42 pm

I've only recently started using any noise reduction; I've been using the free program (Windows) called Picture Cooler -- this one's from Holland. I've found it effective and flexible, but generally apply as little as possible. It has an easy way to compare the before/after look in the preview mode, making fine-tuning the settings very simple.

A side benefit of using some noise reduction is that it can dramatically reduce file sizes. The size of JPEG files is largely determined by the amount of detail in the photo. An area of visually flat color may contain small specks of color noise, which the JPEG algorithm has to consider "detail." By eliminating the noise you create an area of truly even color which will compress more effectively.

I recently processed a small image composed primarily of clear blue sky and some bluish-gray clouds. It started off at 131k, but after an extremely modest application of noise reduction it went down to about 85k.

mlevy · Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 94 Location: Vermont

First thing to do is to use a polarizing filter. That will increase the contrast. You really can't get decent clouds without one. If your images are noisy its probably because the exposure is off. Clouds are bright, and you need to exposure compensation.
Michael

mauijon · Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 4311 Location: Maui, Hawaii

For anyone who cares...heck, even those who don't, I just tried NeatImage with a tiff file input and then the with the same image that was saved as jpeg from that tiff. The resulting output filtered file sizes ( output is jpeg) are within 20KB of each other, with the inputted tiff image being higher than the jpeg input image. The resulting images look identical. I just wondered if there would be any difference with different type files.