- Tips, Tools, and Techniques to Get the Best Landscapes and Cityscapes
- Poring Over the Picture
- Sharp and In Focus: Using Tripods
- Selecting the Proper ISO
- Using Noise Reduction
- Selecting a White Balance
- Using the Landscape Creative Style
- Shooting Beautiful Black-and-White Landscapes
- Golden Light
- Shooting Compelling Sunrises and Sunsets
- Making Water Fluid
- Composing Landscapes and Streetscapes
- Where to Focus
- Easier Focusing
- Using Manual Focus Assist
- Using DMF Focus Mode
- Expand Your Range
- Shooting Panoramas
- Look for the Unexpected
- Chapter 8 Assignments
Using Noise Reduction
For those times you need to use high ISO, a7-series cameras come equipped with advanced noise reduction features you can use to clean up your images.
Setting up High ISO noise reduction
Press the Menu button, and choose Camera Settings > High ISO NR (A).
The default setting is Normal, but to my taste that’s far too strong, so I recommend using the Low noise reduction setting (B) or, better yet, turning it off completely (C) and fine-tuning noise reduction using post-processing software.
Setting up Long Exposure noise reduction
- When shooting at shutter speeds over 1 second, even low ISOs can accumulate noise simply because of the extended length of time the sensor is activated. This type of noise, sometimes referred to as dark noise, is the result of the camera’s sensor heating up during exposure. To reduce the amount of noise present in images shot with a 1-second or longer shutter speed, Long Exposure noise reduction comes in handy. In order to take advantage of this type of noise reduction, you must first ensure that your drive mode is set to single shooting (discussed in Chapter 3).
- After selecting the proper drive mode, choose Menu > Camera Settings > Long Exposure NR.
The default setting is On. If you know you are going to be making extremely long exposures in JPEG mode, ensure that it is set before shooting. The camera will automatically expose a blank frame of equal duration after each exposure and use that to reduce dark noise in the JPEG.