Low noise high ISO when shooting hand held
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Low noise at high ISO or even extreme high ISO is possible without losing image quality. Just by shooting a burst of images at the same settings and averaging them out in photoshop. This gives you more freedom when shooting hand held in low light conditions. On a tripod you're able to set a longer exposure, but hand held your shutter speeds need to be fast enough to avoid camera shake. So you options are to use a wider aperture or a higher ISO. When using this technique you're able to shoot images noise free, even at higher ISO levels.
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Really simply and clearly explained making this an excellent video. Thank you
Glad you like it! Thank you!
That's an AWESOME technique Dirk, awesome.
Hey David, thanks for your comment! It can make things easier when shooting in low light conditions without a tripod.
I always like it when the tutors explain why they do things a certain way, as it helps me remember better, and you always do that beautifully, Dirk.
It''s also a great technique for increasing the length of long exposures when you don't have dark enough neutral density filters to do it in a single image in camera. Double the number of images gives the effect of an extra stop on the shutter speed. Four times for two stops, etc.
Hey Walker, thanks for your nice remarks! I'm planning to create a video on using this technique to shoot long exposures. I already used it in that way in the past. The extra advantage here is that you are able to shoot a burst and then later on create images with different long exposures and all this out of one single burst. Next to that you will be able to select different starting points of the long exposure. For example you can start, the burst while a wave is coming in and end it when the wave has gone out. Now you are able to pick the best period within that time span. Like this you will only need a couple of bursts to get the best shot while otherwise you need to experiment much more with the right timing and the best time span.
Excellent tutorial! A minor note - I noticed a slight loss of sharpness in the final image, but that's easily fixed.
If one or more of the images is slightly out of focus you will loose sharpness. With a macro image like the mushrooms it's more likely that some of the images of the burst are out of focus. In macro very small movements of the camera might make a big difference. In landscape photography you won't have this problem.
Well explained! In Lightroom Classic / Camera RAW you can use the new AI denoise function on a single Photo and get similar or even better results without this hassle.
The new AI gets close, but there's still some loss of detail with it.
Why not just use noise reduction in LightRoom?
Hi Dirk.
Excellent. I normally use the auto align but did not know about the manual alignment technique where the images go dark to check the alignment accuracy. Many thanks
Great job! Those new to photography aren't aware but you did a great job explaining.
Thanks8 I try to do my best! ;-)
WOW amazing! Thank you again!
Super bit of learning Dick. Thank you so much for sharing this information.
Thanks Kevin! It's Dirk with an R ;-) But I'm already used of this common mistake. So no harm done!
Excellent technic. This method is also used when doing astrophotagraphy, never thought about using it in “ordinary” photography.
That's where I found the technique! Although I don't shoot stars, it can be wise to look behind the horizon an see what astrophotography, wildlife photography, street photography or any other kind of photography use certain techniques. Sometimes you might find something interesting!
Been doing it for some years, you should try it! :)
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Wow, who knew about this. Thanks Dirk, very helpful
Thanks for your comment!
A Grerat Tutorial! Sometimes I find that "median" stacking mode, rather than "mean," better serves the purpose.
Great tutorial Dirk. It looks like you are using the RAW files in the stack. Have you processed them beforehand, or are they RAW files straight out of the camera?
Good explanation, thanks. :) Technically, you reduce noise level proportional to the square root of the number of images you record. Four images -> half the noise. Nine images -> one third the noise, etc. This concept is referred to as "singnal averaging".
Interestingly, the same method of stacking images to reduce noise is done in-camera on modern high end cameras (like Sony A9III) and on newer iPhones as well.
Thanks for your clarification! Appreciate it!
Excellent tip. I am just wondering what benefit this might have over simply using Adobe’s denoise feature though … ?
Interesting remark! I should have included a comparison. Maybe I'll create a separate video on a comparison. Just checked the effect of the denoise in Lightroom with the technique. With the denoise I see quite some loss in detail in regard to the averaged out image (12 exposures). So as far as I can see this technique gives better results than the Adobe denoise!
Great! Thanks for the response. I am certainly going to try your technique now
Thank you for the usefull tutorial Dirk! Do you think this technique would also be compatible with focus stacking? Focus stacking the mushroom and at the same time keeping the noise (of the background) under control? I just tried it according to your instructions but the smart object is not focus stacked...
Hey Maarten, focus stacking won't work with this technique. Here you need your focus point at the same point all of the times. Otherwise you'll average out areas that are in focus with areas that are out of focus. This will result in a loss of sharpness. If you use only two or three focal points you'll get a multiple exposure with different focal points. This can result in interesting images, but that's a total different technique and approach.
Will try this, I normally use Topaz
Thanks for your comment! I might try to compare different denoise software with this technique in the near future.
I assure you , you will no longer use the technique you described above. I also did not believe what denoise software could do untill i tried DXO pure raw...but these days i will shoot at iso 6400 or even 12.800 without having to worry about noise ...i am shooting with a 5DSR and a 1Dx @@dirkercken1348
Can this be done with different exposed images too? So you'll get noise reduction and hdr in one step?
I find that bracketing in low light, and then using HR software does get rid of the noise.
That will work , but why not just install decent noise removal software like DXO or Topaz or even use PS denoise....i also shoot the older canon cams. I can get a raw photo taken at iso 6400 as clean as at iso 800 photo shot without losing details with the same camera just using DXOpure raw denoise. What a work loading 10 different images with the exact content and then hope they align perfect. Lets say you need to correct 20 or 50 photo's from a shoot...how long would it take to remove noise in the described way. Try such denoise software as a trial and never look back.
I only use this technique when I have to go to the extremes: ISO 6400, 12800 or even ISO 25600 with the noise level of ISO 100 to 400 without using the denoise software. And if there is any noise visible after this technique you still can use denoise software to get the noise level of an ISO 100 image. All this without losing image detail. The technique is especially useful when shooting in difficult low light conditions, images with good exposure (extreme high ISO) but where you need to open up the shadows a lot. That's where noise will be most prominent, and that's also the region where you will loose most image detail when you use Denise software.
The thing about the latest denoise software is that you also keep the details about just as good as with the technique you use. The older noise removal software indeed made details look soft and smeared.@@dirkercken1348
It's an awesome technique that not many know about, tks. for this video 🙏 , I find though that still Tripod is best for bursts and the more photos you stack, the less noise. I learned about this from iPhone photography Guru David Addison , another explanation of how this works ua-cam.com/video/EvQSGUgOXrQ/v-deo.html