# Noise reduction for Sony files



## goproguy (Sep 1, 2019)

I had been with Canon for about 9 years until this June. That is when I upgraded from the Canon T3 to the Sony a7iii. 
I got it because I wanted to have the best possible photos of Yosemite National Park I could. Now, with that trip and a family trip to Disneyland behind me, I have TONS of photos to go through. 

My concern is that I was taking photos on various ISOs but mainly under 10,000 (in rides it was up to 204, 000), and ALL of my photos, including ones that are like ISO 2000 are REALLY noisy. The 204k ISO have a purple tint that I assume is the sensor coping with the super low light in the rides.

So, is there a system  on HOW you reduce noise (and maybe what I should realistically expect from software)? Or maybe a  program that does a better job than LR Classic on noise?
I don't know if there is a way to upload a file so you can SEE how they look, but I tried attaching a tiff and it failed miserably (The uploaded file is too large for the server to process. )

Thanks, I feel like I should know this by now...


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## clee01l (Sep 4, 2019)

ISO Settings like 204,000. are pipe dreams of optimistic Sony Engineers.   Canon Nikon Sony and other advertise extreme low light capabilities, I have yet to see a camera that could deliver without the presence of lots of noise.
Sony has a setting called (I think) Dynamic Range Optimiser. This setting should be Off when shooting RAW, DRO is an in camera adjustment to boost the values of poorly lit photo sites and suppress the values of brightly lit photo sites, It can only happen with in camera processing and that output will be an 8 bit JPEG.

Run some tests (before you take that once in a lifetime trip with a new camera.  Set the camera on a tripod in Manual mode and select several ISO Settings with each ISO setting manually adjust the Aperture and/or the shutter speed to produce a correctly exposed scene.  
Import the results and determine at what ISO level the noise level becomes uncorrectable.   This is the highest ISO setting that I would recommend for your camera.   For my Nikon Z7, it has  an ISO range of 64-25,600 (32-102,400 expanded).  I find that the noise level for my camera is acceptable up to about 3200 ISO, sometimes 6400.   This a great improvement over my first DSLR which was limited to about 800 ISO.


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 10, 2019)

And since we're talking after-the-fact, to get the photos in the right ballpark, I'd use the metadata filters to select an ISO (or a range of ISO's if they do 1/3 stops too) and then adjust noise reduction so it looks pretty good on one, then sync that across the rest shot at that ISO. Then repeat for the next, and the next...  In theory LR's NR adjusts by ISO behind the scenes, but I rarely find they hit my personal preference just right.


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## goproguy (Sep 10, 2019)

clee01l said:


> ISO Settings like 204,000. are pipe dreams of optimistic Sony Engineers.   Canon Nikon Sony and other advertise extreme low light capabilities, I have yet to see a camera that could deliver without the presence of lots of noise.
> Sony has a setting called (I think) Dynamic Range Optimiser. This setting should be Off when shooting RAW, DRO is an in camera adjustment to boost the values of poorly lit photo sites and suppress the values of brightly lit photo sites, It can only happen with in camera processing and that output will be an 8 bit JPEG.
> 
> Run some tests (before you take that once in a lifetime trip with a new camera.  Set the camera on a tripod in Manual mode and select several ISO Settings with each ISO setting manually adjust the Aperture and/or the shutter speed to produce a correctly exposed scene.
> Import the results and determine at what ISO level the noise level becomes uncorrectable.   This is the highest ISO setting that I would recommend for your camera.   For my Nikon Z7, it has  an ISO range of 64-25,600 (32-102,400 expanded).  I find that the noise level for my camera is acceptable up to about 3200 ISO, sometimes 6400.   This a great improvement over my first DSLR which was limited to about 800 ISO.


Wow! Great advice. I wish someone had told me that years ago!



Victoria Bampton said:


> And since we're talking after-the-fact, to get the photos in the right ballpark, I'd use the metadata filters to select an ISO (or a range of ISO's if they do 1/3 stops too) and then adjust noise reduction so it looks pretty good on one, then sync that across the rest shot at that ISO. Then repeat for the next, and the next...  In theory LR's NR adjusts by ISO behind the scenes, but I rarely find they hit my personal preference just right.


So  run a sorting filter and adjust each group of ISOs by what looks best?


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 10, 2019)

goproguy said:


> So  run a sorting filter and adjust each group of ISOs by what looks best?



Yep. You'll probably find you then tweak the noise reduction individually on your best photos, but they'll be in a closer ball park.


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## goproguy (Sep 10, 2019)

Ok. Definitely sounds better than working on the 10,000 ISO and then applying that to a 204,000! Thanks


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