Tips For Reducing Noise In Wildlife Photography

[@PangolinWildlife]

What other tips can you share with our community? What works for you?

[@petertrahan9785]

Thank you for a great explanation. I constantly run into people who think that turning up the ISO will make their images noisier. I learned the truth early on in my photography journey as I tried to do astrophotography. Most people when they talk about noise in technical terms are referring to read noise, which comes from the camera, but the noise we see in these low light situations is coming from shot noise, which has nothing to do with the electronics of the camera. ISO gain can not increase shot noise as shot noise originates from the random nature of the way photons hit the sensor. Shot noise is a result of not enough photons hitting the sensor. One way of fixing this is to collect more photons. But sometimes we are limited and cannot decrease our shutter speed any further for various reasons. In these situations, increasing ISO will amplify the signal of the photons that we have collected and that will in effect wash out the noise and make it less noticeable. So, yes, in this situation, increasing the ISO will decrease the noise you see. But people have been trained to think that more ISO = more noise. That does happen when you are in an auto setting where increasing ISO also increases shutter speed, but it is the increased shutter speed in that case that is the real cause of the increased noise. Modern camera sensors do a much better job handling read noise nowadays and as such, high ISO settings just aren't much of a concern. The increase in read noise is minimal when compared to the decrease in shot noise.

[@nancyross2897]

Oh my.. I think I’m going to have to watch this several times before I absorb this as my brain did think the opposite. Thank you for this tutorial 😁

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad it was helpful!

[@impistol007]

Great video! Janine is even better in person. We captured superb images following her guidelines on our recent safari. My tip to to go on a safari with Janine!

[@huffmanphotoart3453]

My compliments to you and the entire photo team at Pangolin. As a 40-year photographer and coach, I appreciate your careful explanations and illustrations. I look forward to seeing you in person Oct. 1 2023.

[@JohnChubbSr]

Thank you! You make it all so clear!!!

[@RenmiyaAsakura]

I don't know how I came across this video. I was searching for manual focus. But this video is great and I really enjoyed it.

[@stephenjudge4356]

That was great. Thank you! Very helpful. It’s going to take some practice though. Think I’ll save this one and watch it again a few times.

[@jstephens62]

I eliminated all noise from my images by turning off the sound on my computer. It works like a champ. I look forward to our trip with Pangolin in June!

[@PangolinWildlife]

Genius!!!! ;-) See you in June!

[@vimalneha]

Good points, covers most issues well. 4th point is the most important.

[@MariaKarras]

You're delivery of difficult lighting and capture concepts is clear and easy to follow....thank you!

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad it was helpful!

[@stevelewis7284]

Hi Janine!!! I know that this is a very late comment to your video from last year but I found your video as I was desperately looking for any help that I could find with the issue of noise. I just retired recently but over the last 10 years or so I have invested quite heavily into my camera gear so that this would become my “next chapter”. Your lesson on reducing noise was quite helpful but I am convinced that I will need to watch it again as I am still quite the novice. Thanks to you and all of the Pangolin photographers for all that you do to help novices like me but pros alike.

[@schneeaddict]

Just yesterday I was looking at a few of my favorite images I've taken and they were at 10,000 ISO. That's when I realized just how important proper exposure is even if it required higher ISO... those images had more detail than most of my other photos at lower ISO. Then today I find this video with more explanation and examples. It's clear to me that ISO should be less of a consideration than it usually is.

[@PangolinWildlife]

What great timing that was then!

[@patrickmorgan7173]

Interesting and helpful...thanks!

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad you thought so.

[@digitaliq3827]

Thank you so so much. I have recently been literally wrestling to lower my noise by keeping ISO low.. but the moment I tried to pull up details from shadows.. it all snapped !! Thank you for sharing this much needed knowledge 🙏🙏

[@PangolinWildlife]

No problem. Glad to help.

[@bennievivier3982]

Thanks Janine, you convinced me to shoot at higher ISO levels rather than to under expose!

[@PangolinWildlife]

Great Stuff!

[@ManinderSinghDoon]

Thank you. A great tutorial on a complex subject from Pangolin. As usual. I tried the suggestions in this lesson on photographs from an early morning 2 hour jungle safari in the sub Himalayan forests along with editing with Luminar Neo and finishing with their Noiseless AI and Supersharp AI. I had used manual setting + Auto ISO with BBF. With limitations of the season and the time limitations the shots were mostly forest landscapes and some smaller animals. Your inputs were a game changer. Thank you once again.

[@yeuhuanlai6573]

Totally agree. I shoot for correct exposure of the subject most of the time, and will live with ISO as high as 12800 and even 25600 in very low light. On processing, the images can be reasonably usable.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad you agree. Thank you.

[@albertolacbai]

Wow. Thank you! That was worth my time. Will apply these in the field.

[@georgemason2472]

Very well explained and illustrated. Our experience in the Pacific Northwest is almost always low light. The necessity of a lens capable of bringing in as much light as possible is critical. Possibly more important than many adjustments to camera settings

[@PangolinWildlife]

Best you come to Africa for some extra light then!!! ;-)

[@alankefauver6187]

On the R5 I want the full 14 bit dynamic range so avoid electronic shutter (12 bit). I shoot up to ISO 25.600 and don't worry about noise as I "develop" using DxO PureRaw which includes their Deep Prime NR which works fantastically. The evaluative metering in the R5 gives great correct exposures for normal situations. See you on June 23rd on the Chobe!!!

[@PangolinWildlife]

Cant wait to see you...and your R5!

[@raylander6329]

@@PangolinWildlife Yep, Canon R5 and DXO with Deep Prime = awesome; Hope to be on the Chobe in September 2022 and meet the great PangolinTeam; each of them an accomplished photographer!!!

[@bestpix100]

Fabulous topic, thanks so much for your time and effort

[@PangolinWildlife]

Its a pleasure Bestpix.

[@TheMickebostrom]

Very helpful information... thank you!

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SATYAOBLETTE]

Thank you Janine ☀️

[@michealpociecha8351]

Thanks. Great explanation. Will be trying it out soon.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Best of luck!

[@BrendaTharp]

Hi, Brenda Tharp here. Thanks for this well-explained video! I had such a great time leading my group in early April at Chobe! Can't wait to get back there again. I have taught the "expose to the right" method for my landscape/nature photography for many years, and it's amazing how many people are 'afraid' to do that. They rely on how the jpeg looks on their LCD. I try to get them to use the lcd view option to always show the histograms and a smaller image, so they are not influenced by the jpeg exposure. Especially if you are shooting to the right. It's hard to keep them on that version of the screen though - people want to see the large image as if to confirm they got the shot! I get it, but the histogram is the holy grail of when using ETTR method to ensure you are not clipping those highlights. ALSO, knowing how much you can 'push it' with your specific cameras/models helps. I know that even if I am running up the right side of my graph a tiny bit that the highlights are still recoverable. I learned to trust that. Keep up the great videos!!

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you Brenda. Looking forward to seeing you again!

[@edselharrison]

Excellent tutorial. Thank you!

[@augusto_alves]

This is well explained! Thank you!

[@PangolinWildlife]

You're very welcome!

[@yvonnehunter5980]

Fabulous tutorial. Thanks. I plan to watch it again (and maybe again after that) to review the content in more detail. The video was very relevant after a recent trip to Nebraska to experience and photograph the sandhill crane migration. There, I was faced with the most challenging photography ever due to extreme low light conditions and photography restrictions in our blind at sunrise (less so at sunset when the cranes returned). I had to make numerous split second choices in selecting higher (higher than I've ever used) ISO, shutter speed, focal length and lenses, trying different combinations as dawn transitioned to complete sun. Worrying about noise and blurred images due to slower shutter speeds was a constant -- but, it was great fun and I am pleased with many of the resulting images after post-processing.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you Yvonne. Much appreciated.

[@robertpeters9834]

Thank you for the advice/video/tutorial Janine. A lot of info to appreciate, learn and understand.The best thing is to experiment with your own camera/sensor to see what works best.

[@pmhelsinki]

What a wonderfull explanation, I'm guilty has charged for trying to keep my ISO as low as possible. Although I dont shoot wildlife I am now going to try out your tips and see if I can improve. Thank you.

[@richardruda267]

Wow; who knew? So much valuable information Janine. Thanks

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad it was helpful!

[@alechunter3913]

Very clear presentation

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad you liked it

[@carlosalexandresouza5816]

I've made all those mistakes since I start to shoot... hehehe But, finally I'm beggining to learn (make myself to do it) shooting at correct exposure even with high ISO. I shoot whit a Nikon D500 and a zoom 600mm third party lens, and a set the ISO (automatically) to 5000. Well, I'm really liking the results now. Congrats for your content. This channel is amazing.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you so much. Glad you enjoy it!

[@m.a.stough4994]

Great tutorial. Very nice presentation style, very unbiased.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Much appreciated!

[@janniekidson]

Yes I do have a challenge with noise on the dark areas. But I think I will have it sorted now..

[@petertrahan9785]

At 12:50 you say that noise increases exponentially in the darks at high ISO. I think you were referring to the case where the exposure is underexposed vs overexposed. That statement out of context might be confusing. I think another way of saying the same thing is that noise in the darks will increase exponentially with the same ISO as the exposure value decreases. It is not the ISO that is causing the increase in noise. Rather, it is the decrease in exposure value. This point is well demonstrated in your examples of low vs high ISO images. At first I thought that contradicted what you had said at 12:50 and I thought you misspoke. I had to go back and listen carefully to understand what you were saying. For that reason I think it is more clear to express that point by saying that noise in the darks increases exponentially as exposure value decreases

[@robberthummen8283]

Wow, this was a great tutorial. I knew I had to expose to the right, but never thought about raising my ISO (and thus needing a faster shutter speed) and getting less noise in my darks. I will try this out at the Zoo soon. Thanks Janine!

[@gmf756]

Hi Janine, have been working with all that hints since joining you in the Masai Mara. And it works perfectly although the shooting to the right still requires some boldness. Thanks so much for your valueable hints! Cheers Michael

[@PangolinWildlife]

It's a pleasure Michael. Hope to see you again soon.

[@boatman222345]

Excellent…I am so glad I stumbled upon the Pangolin site! I've watched 7 or 8 of their instructional videos thus far and have been massively impressed by the the clarity of the detailed yet incredibly concise instructional material. Having used a modified variation of Ansel Adams's Zone System of exposure for my film photography I tended to underexpose when I switched to digital. One this became clear to me I began exposing to the right as suggested in this video and it made a massive difference in image quality!

[@frankbolstad7339]

Thank you! Educational and to the point, as always 😄💪

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad you liked it. Thanks for watching.

[@stevechan5569]

Another excellent presentation. I have to view it a couple more times to be able to understand and practise the details. Have a great day.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the extra views!

[@brendajphotography]

Very informative video. I have been practicing this myself as of the last year or so. Thank you for sharing.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad you liked it Brenda.

[@EdwardKilner]

Very worthwhile video. Thank you.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Very welcome

[@IamNoOne-001]

Very good video!!!!! great shots!!! 👏👏👏👏👏

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you.

[@betpernissen9463]

Really good and understandable explanation. Always good to remember, even if it can be difficult when you are in situations. Must lie on the spine. Thanks Janinne.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad it was helpful!

[@joncothranphotography9375]

Wonderful information, Janine! I'm not sure how I missed this video when it came out, but Thanks for sharing your knowledge! My Canon T6 really doesn't like high ISO, but sometimes I can get things just right and it takes an image that looks like it came from a R5. That sweet spot is hard to hit, but seems to be getting easier.

[@wildlifevideoguy]

Pangolin once again a very informative video I actually bought my R6 because of Pangolins tutorial on the R6. Does certain lenses help with iso issues.....

[@madelynbrown5230]

I'm totally distracted by your beautiful earrings. 😍 Great video as usual.

[@PangolinWildlife]

ha ha.....will tone them down for the next one....maybe...

[@BrendaTharp]

@@PangolinWildlife no don't! I love them too... ;)

[@robertwhitemoto]

Good stuff Janine. Thank you for this! btw, just purchased my new R5, now over a year after release... can't wait to see what it can do.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Its a great camera...enjoy!

[@sarath128]

Very good video. I have always tried to keep my iso low auto limit being set to 6400 max. Now I think it should be 12800. Thanks Janine. But I think my 90D makes more noise than other cameras

[@martinhommel9967]

I have a 90d. I shoot at ISO 6400 max. With the right lens you can get excellent pics

[@alanm.4298]

Something I've often noticed people doing and tried to discourage is "over protecting" highlights. Virtually every scene has some "pure white" in it. Yet people often try to keep their histogram from even touching the right-hand side out of fear of "blown highlights". That causes them to underexpose everything else, while actually accomplishing nothing. There is no detail to protect in those pure white areas and, in virtually every scene, with a proper exposure the histogram actually should go off the right side a little or a lot. Exactly how much "piles up" on the right side of the histogram depends upon the scene. Another major factor is that often the same people are viewing those under exposed images on uncalibrated computer monitors. It is very common for monitors to be excessively bright for image editing, which leads them to believe they are exposing correctly when they are actually consistently under exposing. You could argue that what I'm calling under exposed images are just fine because they look pretty good on the photographer's personal, uncalibrated monitor. The problem is when they share those images or make prints from them. The images will appear overly dark to anyone with a better calibrated monitor and the prints made from the images willl be too dark as well. All this leads to noisier images than necessary, once they finally get around to making a print or adjusting the image so that it appears more correctly on other people's computer monitors.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you for sharing Alan. Much appreciated.

[@orionorion2405]

Excellent !

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@FlyFishFairwx]

Hello, I shoot PENTAX K1MkII and the Pentax K3MKIII so I have the best of both worlds, great dynamic range and low light performance, (in both cameras), no worries going to higher ISO with my gear. I have the 70-200mm f2.8 Pentax lens and the Pentax 150-450mm 4.5-5.6 lens, add the 1.5 teleconverter and a 24-70Pentax lens, would I be right in thinking this would be the holy trinity of safari lens?

[@chiranthachanuka1989]

Thanks you♥

[@PangolinWildlife]

Our pleasure.

[@sukhvirb7684]

Best video ❤

[@howardrankin7119]

Really helpful Janine

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad you thought so. Thank you.

[@alanm.4298]

Something I've noticed people and tried to discourage is "over protecting" highlights. Virtually every scene has some "pure white" in it. Yet people often try to keep their histogram from touching the right-hand side. That causes them to underexposed everything else, while actually accomplishing nothing. There is no detail to protect in those pure white areas and in virtually every scene, with a proper exposure the histogram actually should go off the right side a little or a lot. How much "piles up" on the right side of the histogram depends upon the scene. Another major factor is that often the same people are viewing those under exposed images on uncalibrated computer monitors. It is very common for monitors to be excessively bright for image editing, which leads them to believe they are exposing correctly when they are actually consistently under exposing. You could argue that what I'm calling under exposed images are just fine because they look pretty good on those uncalibrated monitors. The problem is when they share those images or make prints from them. The images will appear overly dark to anyone with a better calibrated monitor and the prints made from the images willl be too dark as well. All this leads to noisier images than necessary, once they finally get around to making a print or adjusting the image so that it appears more correctly on other people's computer monitors.

[@markusmarschall6643]

Very nice video! Where did you get the dynamic range numbers @ 4:25 from? The Nikon Z9 must be a typo, it is much closer the the A1 and R3.

[@koloasurf2012]

Noise is the worst for me. I am not satisfy with the R5 noise issue I am having. I recently did some whale watching tour on Maui and the whale images seems to have noise in every one of them. My setting was at 1/2000s, Auto iso because of the lighting condition from bright to dark, F4 is what i usually keep because my thought is to help with the fast shutter speed and sometimes the high iso. love your thought on this

[@SohamDas1995]

I agree totally

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you.

[@andycoleman2708]

I have set the upper limit of my ISO to 8000 on my Sony A74, but I think I'll take that off and see how it works. Thanks!

[@PangolinWildlife]

Let us know!

[@vinodgeorge1636]

Dynamic Range of camera is inversely proportional to the iso used. So using higher iso will reduce the dynamic range for that instance. And how we shoot - under / over expose depends on how iso invariant our gear is. For an iso invariant camera, shooting underexposed to keep the iso lower will result in hight dynamic range, and more accurate colour reproduction in post processing. But the level of underexposing shall not go beyond the iso invariance range of the camera. On the other hand, if we shoot with an iso variant camera its always better to do shoot at iso required for that situation. Lastly the dynamic range of flagship cameras you have shown in comparison to human eyes seems a bit incorrect. You were right about A1 being 14.5, but those of R3 and Z9 seems lesser than actual values.

[@krishnakumargiyer]

Excellent! I always shoot in manual mode with Auto ISO that seems to work well. I choose the aperture and the shutter speed based upon the requirement for what I am shooting. Max ISO is set to 6400. So the camera automatically increases the ISO as required (to the lowest ISO value as determined by the camera) to expose correctly using the set aperture, shutter speed and the metering mode chosen. While I do this, I watch the EV to be sure it is not getting underexposed in which case I see if the aperture or shutter can be adjusted. If not I will increase the ISO further. After seeing this tutorial, I feel I should also add a 2/3 or a stop EV compensation to further ETTR. Will this work..?

[@PangolinWildlife]

Yes I think it will.

[@lewisabulafia4358]

Thanks very much for your presentation. It might be nice if you could show the histograms of the last three images along with the noise levels. Unfortunately, I have not had the same experience as others in regards to the Canon R5. I ALWAYS try to shoot to the right, but find that even with "correct" histograms I get unacceptable noise at high ISO,i.e, 3600+. I have tried Topaz Denoise and it helps only somewhat. Very, very frustrating.

[@PangolinWildlife]

That does indeed sound frustration. Have you seen the R5 set up video? kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHKrXodsns5oo5I

[@thomastuorto9929]

After owning my camera for 6 years, I have only tried raising my max iso from 3200 to 6400 in the last month. Also played with a plus exposure compensation while shooting backlit on a bright cloudy day. I have mixed feelings about it. Some photos seem better off at higher iso's than deleting or not shooting at all when I know I could get the photo at a later date. Some seem worse depending on the photo, color, etc. Like for local birding photos. I still shoot. If traveling afar, I would take the shot.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you for sharing that.

[@MikeAscione081]

Perle di saggezza cara Signora come il "sottoesporre" se lo sfondo e' piu' scuro del soggetto quando si usa la Valutativa. Grazie

[@_Name_]

Trying to avoid the "V" gesture for "number two" looks more like a gynecological one))) Although the well known for years method called ETTR (Exposure To The Right) is still helpful nowadays even with modern sensors for sure. The only thing to remind is: the most of the photocameras still show the distribution of light on histogram, based on in-camera JPG preview, so the real right margin of light in RAW file histogram is usually located a bit more to the right.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thanks for the reminder. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@SKgeostrat]

Hi Jannine, the number of people who find they have to view the video again and again to understand the concept, should tell you whether it really was clear or not! I happen to think not. I think you are using too much conceptual theory and not enough straight forward setting advice. Steve Perry of Backcountry Gallery (who takes his groups to the Chobe with you guys) is a master at this. Have a look and see if you agree. That being said, I love the pictures you take and find the Pangolin approach to organising Safaris excellent. I plan on coming myself, once this pandemic is really over.

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you for your feedback Steiner. Always appreciated.

[@graymarks3143]

Is there any benefit changing my files to Adobe DNG ?

[@jdsmphotography2144]

excelllenttttttttttttttttt

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you!!!!!!

[@bigdtf1753]

Hi Janine, I appreciate your videos and they you explain the concepts you are covering. Great job! Do you keep all files of an image or just the final jpeg? So - initial Raw, .tiff (AI DeNoise), export to.jpeg. Now we have three files of the same image. Just curious.

[@robertgiguere875]

Noise in low light is the boogie man