Is there something wrong with my D70?

[Junomech]

Help!

See picture below. it was taken at a fashion show this weekend and most of images have large amounts of noise.

Settings were:
Aperture priority
WB: Flash (0)
ISO: 640
SB-800 w/ diffuser set to AA

[PeteQ]

The D70 is a bit noisy when compared to the D200 or D2 series cameras. Once you venture above 400 you are going to see it. Try Noise Ninja on that and it should clean up pretty well.

[Junomech]

Thanks for the reply.
This only happens when I open it in Photoshop.
Nikon Capture has a whole lot less noise than this.

[CaptainTom]

D70 not noted for its anti noise abilities. But, that is why Noise Ninja, and other programs were developed. They do a really good job.

[engstrom]

I don't know much about Nikon Capture but it's possible it automatically does a noise reduction on the RAW file above a certain ISO (maybe 400). You can try the color and luminance noise reduction sliders on the "detail" tab of ACR but be warned, luminance noise reduction will greatly reduce detail so use it sparingly.

[PeteQ]

Nikon Capture handle NEF file better than Photoshop after all, they wrote the software to write the files. But it is slower. Many folks prefer the quality of Captures conversion to that of ACR.

[billbunton]

I'd say there's nothing wrong with your D70. You were at ISO640 plus apparently two stops underexposed (since you've given +1.90 stops exposure compensation in ACR). You're going to get a lot of noise from any camera with that much compensation in the raw converter. Noise Ninja/Neat Image should do a pretty good job of cleaning it up.

[Junomech]

I don't think I'll be shooting at ISO 650 anymore unless I absolutely have to.

[Detonate]

Ugh! Turn off the Auto settings in ACR. They are 99% of the time WRONG!

Have you calibrated ACR? If not, you should.

I'd be interested to see what the screenshot looks like with an:
Exposre: 0
Shadow: 10
Brightness: 80
Contrast: +3
Saturation: +5

[beavo451]

Considering that there is +1.9 compensation applied, I would venture to say that you severely underexposed the image. With higher ISOs, you have to nail the exposure or slightly overexpose to minimize noise. As it is right now, you brought out a severe amount of noise by applying the compensation in ACR.

Sidenote: What were you focusing on? The girls face seems to be out of focus while her shorts and people behind her seem more in focus.

[Mike G]

Looks like her crotch was the focus point (this post will prolly be deleted)

[Junomech]

The out of focus face is the result of me trying to reduce the noise with Nikon's editing software. I was playing around with both editors and noticed Adobe added a lot more noise than Nikon.

[petert]

Originally Posted by Junomech

Thanks for the reply.
This only happens when I open it in Photoshop.
Nikon Capture has a whole lot less noise than this.

Yeah, I landed on this issue too... I discovered for some scenes, it was better to convert the batch in NC than PS... process to TIF, then manipulate in PS.

If you think this is bad, you should take a few shots with the D70 in a dim club, capturing some band, then try to read the image in ACR... boy it's b-a-d! NC cleans it right up...