Beginner Help with grainy photographs

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GavinThinks

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Name
Gavin
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi everyone, I am just looking for some help with what settings to use and possibly what i did wrong while taken my last couple of pictures. I am fairly new to photography but have had a couple of point and shoot (my last one was a Finepix hs20exr) over the years but nothing compares to a DSLR.
I have been asked by a friend to take a couple of pictures of some horses and these are the shots that i got, Now I'm not sure if I'm using the wrong settings or just bad at taken pictures but they don't look right to me.
I was using a Canon 250d with a 18-50mm lens.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

https://flic.kr/p/2n8FfoU
https://flic.kr/p/2n8GTLL
 
You've taken then at ISO 25600 which is going to be virtually unusable in most cases without significant post processing. They also still look under exposed which suggests to me you were shooting in quite dark conditions?

I would definitely open up the aperture as wide as possible in low light situations - f4 to f5.6 on your lens (and maybe look at picking up a lens with an f1.8 maximum aperture if you'll regularly shoot in low light), and see how low you can bring the shutter speed to keep the subject sharp. You might not get much slower than 1/100 unless the horses are completely still.

Then ISO can be set at whatever it needs to be to expose the shot correctly. Try limiting it to 6400 and see if you can get the shot. If not you can bump it a bit (at the cost of noise in the photo), slow the shutter (at increased risk of blur) or add light to the scene somehow.
 
Last edited:
Hi Andy,
Yea it was getting pretty late so i didn't have much light to work with. Ok great thank you for your advice.
Ill try these settings next time I'm able to.
Thanks again
 
Regarding ‘what you did wrong’ to learn from is that you need light to take pictures.
And you need to learn that your meter can be fooled by light areas in an image.

This is a dark subject, in a dark place, whilst the image actually includes some quite bright areas. You need to use +exp comp in this scenario.

But mostly what’s wrong is that you’ve just picked up a camera and pointed it at a subject. That’s not how you make a good photo.

If your friend wants good images, you need to work with them to find a suitable time, a suitable location, make sure the horse is looking it’s best, and that your friend does too (you should get pics of them interacting).

Give yourself an hour or more and be prepared to work out what looks ‘good’. Maybe build a Pinterest board before you start so you can agree on what it is you want to create.

Good photos (like any other pursuit) are the result of a bit of hard work, they don’t happen when you press the shutter, they’re not the result of buying expensive gear, they’re the result of a bit of planning and preparation.

And that holds whether you’re shooting at a zoo, your kids at a park, indoor studio, landscapes, nature, steam trains - whatever.

You’re very fortunate if you find yourself somewhere that you can just pick up your camera, click and produce a great picture.
 
Seems to me the poor lightning is the bigger problem here and just like Phil said, you need to work with your friend to find suitable time and location. Here are a couple of articles on taking pictures with bad lightning that may be useful in case any other location is unavailable:
- https://posterjack.ca/blogs/inspira...aphy-tips-take-great-pictures-without-a-flash
- https://www.shutterbug.com/content/6-ways-take-great-photos-bad-light
Also the grain effect could be reduced a bit and here are some recommendations on fixing grainy pictures but it's mostly about the lightning.
 
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