I recently bought an R8 and have been trying my hand at photographing some sunsets. However, it seems that whatever I do, I get a lot of noise in the image. I've tried wide and small aperture (f/4.5 - f/11), auto ISO and setting ISO to 100 to force a shutter speed, tripod and not, and changing the exposure / metering settings. Example attached (this one is 24mm, f/4.5, 1/1600 shutter, ISO 200). The clouds / sky in the picture (and in all of them) has a grainy texture (noticeable on the full shot at normal zoom, and much more so when magnified).
I'm stumped on what might be causing it and how I can get this resolved. Any help would be appreciated.
It is dark, but even if I brighten the sky I don't get the same noise as you got. I still think your noise issue is due to your sharpening in Lightroom. I also think Adobe still uses AHD as demosaicing method (Adaptive Homogeneity-Directed). Good for areas of high contrast. Not so good for low contrast.
What it looks like for me in darktable without any sharpening, lens profile or NR.
A demosaicing method dedicated for high contrast, like AHD/RCD/AMaZE, will also let you see the artifacts from CRAW easier.
AHD:
VNG4 that is good for maze pattern or low contrast:
Thanks for sorting out the access for me. I have downloaded the three files and expanded them. I am now looking at them in PS.
In looking at 4811.cr3 my reaction is that there is some noise, particularly in the clouds, but TBH, I would expect that, given that the exposure is reduced to accommodate the bright light of the exposed sun. As I alluded to before, the dynamic range of the sensor is nowhere near our perception. Noise comes from under-exposure and very high ISO values - the latter of which you obviously don't have. I think that in getting the sunlit area right, the clouds (in some areas where they were darkest), have noise. There is also some drop-off of sharpness and in this case
I think it might have been interesting to use some different settings: Your EXIF data shows the following for the file 4811.CR3 1/1600sec, f/4.5, ISO-200.
I would tend to go for a slower shutter speed and still catch the waves, in fact a much slower shutter speed might have had some nice movement effects, providing an element of dynamism, but that's an artistic debate! Still, dropping to even 1/800sec, would allow a f/stop of 5.6 which would increase the depth of field.
The great landscape photographer, Ansel Adams once said that the negative (in this case the RAW image) was like the score of an orchestral piece, and just as the conductor interprets it to give it life and expression, so does post production with a photo.
So, one might say that the RAW image is simply that: RAW. The rest is meant to be achieved in the digital darkroom. Some may debate that, and that's the nature of any art. I took the image and played with it in PS, see what you think of this resulting JPG...
