Low light - noisy camera

[arczux]

Hi,

Can you look at my photos and say is it normal or something is wrong with my camera? When i try to capture a photo in low light I see blue or red noise in the edges of the picture. This apperars mostly in auto mode and default camera app - only in dark scenes with bright points. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Rukbat]

In auto mode, for a dark picture, the ISO is increased. Increasing the ISO brings in more noise. Digital Photography 101.

Set it for a fixed ISO that's high enough to get the bright area you want. Set any other exposure setting to non-automatic, and shoot with an open lens and a slow shutter - which will allow you to shoot with a lower ISO. See Kodak - 13 Lessons to Teach Your Child About Digital Photography for a quick tutorial.

 

[Mooncatt]

@Rukbat is spot on. Some noise can be edited out, but you'll risk losing detail. Because phone sensors are so small, they are very susceptible to noise from high ISO levels, and the only way around it in very dark scenes like this is to use manual mode. You may also need to invest in a tripod to eliminate blurring from camera shake, but motion blur from a moving subject may be unavoidable. Then again, creative use of motion blur can result in some awesome photos.

 

[Rukbat]

Or you can just use a Pixel (2 with Camera 3 or Pixel 3) and Night Mode. The image stabilization is not to be believed. (Hand-held for about a 10 second exposure and no blur.)

 

[Fred98TJ]

@Rukbat is spot on. Some noise can be edited out, but you'll risk losing detail. Because phone sensors are so small, they are very susceptible to noise from high ISO levels, and the only way around it in very dark scenes like this is to use manual mode. You may also need to invest in a tripod to eliminate blurring from camera shake, but motion blur from a moving subject may be unavoidable. Then again, creative use of motion blur can result in some awesome photos.

Has nothing to do as such with the sensor size, in and of itself. It has to do with the tiny, tiny pixel pitch (pixel size).

 

[Mooncatt]

Has nothing to do as such with the sensor size, in and of itself. It has to do with the tiny, tiny pixel pitch (pixel size).

Fair enough, but the point still stands that high ISO is going to impact a tiny 16MP sensor a lot more than a full frame 16MP sensor.

 

[lucianus_luciferus]

or switch to pro mode, set ISO to 200 and leave the rest on auto

 

[arczux]

Thank you guys. So it seems auto mode in this phone is not "smart" enough to use it in dark scenes with bright points and only solution is pro mode with lower iso. That's a bit disappointing. On the other hand I compared low light scenes with my old Galaxy S7 edge and S9+ is clear winner. More details, better colours and contrast.

 

[Mooncatt]

If you're looking to improve images with tons of contrast like this, there's a couple of things you can try.

Use manual mode and save as RAW files if you have the option. RAW files maintain ALL of the sensor data, whereas jpeg deletes a lot of it (which means RAW files take up more storage space as well). RAW files are not viewable by regular photo viewers and such, so you will have to edit them and export to a standard photo format like jpeg. What makes them so much better is that because you have all the data to work with, you can bring up the shadows and reduce the highlights more than with a jpeg, giving you a better photo all around.

The other option would be making an HDR photo. Some apps can do this automatically, but you can do it manually as well if the results aren't what you want from those apps. This definitely requires a tripod to keep the phone still, and it's also a rather involved process. I can explain it if you want, but you may be better served looking up tutorials online on how to do it.

Low light photos are challenging enough for a phone. Getting a very high contrast scene, with dark shadows and bright light like in your window example, is difficult even for higher and cameras like DSLR's. I've heard a lot of good things about the Pixel camera apps, but I rarely use modes like Night Sight. I'd rather edit my photos to match my idea of a final image, not leave it up to some algorithm developed by a random programmer that has no idea what I'm wanting to accomplish.