Working with digital images

[sec]

i am sick to death of a lighting mistake that i have made.  i use photoshop elements and i need to lighten the photo but i am getting some really bad results (grainy). and I don't want to go over on the contrast. i shoot with a nikon d100 and i have recently started to use nikon view, but it's not really helping me. i'm trying to salvage my shot and wanted to know if there is a way to do this. my settings were large/fine format, my iso was 400 or 800 i can't remember and i used fill flash it was an overcast day.  thank you for any assistance.

[ShutterbugGail]

Hi Sec,

Welcome to Digicamhelp.

We all take those types of photos and they are really not fun. Depending how grainy and dark they are, such images can be difficult to improve with photo edting software.

The grainy look, in digital image terminology, is called "noise" and is often a result of photos being shot at high ISO numbers like you mention you used (some digital cameras handle noise better than others). For example, here's a section of the same blue sky shot at three different ISOs. Images were each cropped at 100%.



If your noisy images are very dark, you may not be able to lighten them up to an acceptable degree, particularly contrast wise. If Adobe Elements has a Levels adjustment with a histogram, try using that instead of the Brightness/Contrast adjustment.

We have information about noise, some ways to avoid it, and noise removal software (such as NeatImage) for times when it's unavoidable:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/what-is-noise-reduction/

Here's a section of the sky shot at 400 ISO before and after it was run through NeatImage.



Not sure NikonView will help much. Personally, I don't find it's limited image editing tools as effective as those found in programs such as Photoshop, Adobe Elements, Paint Shop Pro, etc.

Hope some of this works for you!


Related reading:

Levels
http://www.digicamhelp.com/what-is-a-histogram/levels-histogram.htm

[ShutterbugGail]

One more comment.

You didn't mention if you used an external flash, or the built-in pop-up flash. As you know, built-in flashes have limited capabilites compared to external flashes. It's very important when using any flash to stay within the recommended flash range.

Sufficient lighting (not always available), coupled with using a low ISO (not always feasible) are key ways of avoiding noise in digital images.