Low Light settings?

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bronxjragon

Well-known member
There was a thread here before about how to get really good low light test footage. I've searched like crazy but don't know if the thread has been deleted. If so, can someone put up some tips how to get noise free footage? I use an AF lens don't know if that affects anything (I can't change fstops after I've activated Live Mode like the sticky suggests).

I filmed some stuff last night at Central Park which looked beautiful on the LCD screen but of course when I viewed it on my Macbook it was full of noise. Any suggestions are welcome!
 
hm i tried that last night but didnt seem to work maybe im missing a step. or maybe ill just use the software cuz i think it in camera
 
use an f1.4 lens at night, and then even still it won't probably even be perfectly noise free, but you're on your way with an f1.4 or f1.2

Remember the camera can't see in the dark or anything, it just takes what could be a hideously noisy image and applys some blur to the image, etc, to make it look less obviously noisy...

It's not a miracle worker like the Canon seems to be...

Go to times square with an f1.2 lens, and you should get some nice night imagery...
 
I've found that using the custom settings for the camera actually helps. I turn off the Active D-Lighting, I turn the brightness all the way up, turn the contrast down a notch and it lifts all the blacks, I'm also able to play with Hue, Saturation, and Sharpness. I put sharpness in the middle in fear of over-sharpening and getting horrific footage.

Only problem is the skin tones begin to look a little wacky, but I'm able to see much more then at normal modes.

D90 is a mysterious camera.
 
What Matthew said . . . try to save up and invest in some super-fast Nikon glass; e.g., Nikkor 50mm f/1.2, Nikkor 35mm f/1.4, Nikkor 85mm f/1.4, etc. Though not cheap, these super-fast lenses give you a really good, first leg-up on capturing those low-light scenes. If you're on a budget, the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 is actually pretty affordable.
 
i have the 1.8 but i dont think the low light footage ive taken should look as miserable as it has. ill keep toying around with it, hopefully a 1.2....manual instead of AF?
 
Bronx, take a look at the newest clip i have up on vimeo using a 1.4 it's more than fast enough with the D90...even a 2.8 looks clean and bright under the right circumstances.
 
Matthew Bennett said:
use an f1.4 lens at night, and then even still it won't probably even be perfectly noise free, but you're on your way with an f1.4 or f1.2

Remember the camera can't see in the dark or anything, it just takes what could be a hideously noisy image and applys some blur to the image, etc, to make it look less obviously noisy...

It's not a miracle worker like the Canon seems to be...

Go to times square with an f1.2 lens, and you should get some nice night imagery...
Click to expand...

it's just as bad when you don't have the right work around

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=154937
 
yeah those are kind of the nightmare-ish results ive been getting with the d90. well its saturday so hopefully i have some time to toy around
 
Expose for the highlights not the average or worse shadows. Point the camera at something bright then lock, or set compensation to -2 or so. Even the matrix metering on the d90 seems to want everything to be medium gray, but you'll want the shadows to be black to get clean footage. /matt
 
i give up with this cam in low light. ive changed the settings using camera control 2.0, ive show at 1/30th shutters speed and f1.8, ive locked exposure to a slightly exposed spot, to dark spot, to mid spot, no matter what i get a noisy image.

the only instance when i dont get noisy image is if im in pitch black and something like the neon light on the microwave is what im filming. so much noise. i really have no clue how to achieve low light clean footage anymore. i dont think it has to do with my 50 mm 1.8 nikkor AF lens either.

its a shame, in fairly lit rooms it produces great images with wonderful bokeh, in low light forget about it. noise as bad as my xh-a1. this camera is so peculiar....
 
you sure man? i can't get a better image in low light. don't give up...gotta be something you're missing and no, you're right that 1.8 is plenty fast. you follow every step that i traced out? could be one thing for all i know.

also make sure your picture setting is at either neutral or standard.
 
Tried putting the camera to vivid mode, as well as putting all the EV's to -3 and pressing Play in Liveview and putting the bar on lowest setting?

That really crushes the blacks and makes everything noise-free, providing your lens is wide open.
 
I never have it in vivid, crushes blacks too much and -3 is way beyond what I have mine on. It's either at -.3 to -1.3 depending on the light.

The noise was always in more than just the blacks...it'd be in brown doors, or red and in the faces. Don't come across it anymore though.
 
thanks fellers ill try it out tomorrow i think if i tried again tonite with no success the d90 will be hurled across the room
 
I recently bought two very fast lenses for my D90: a manual-focus, Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 AIS (used), and a manual-focus, Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 AIS. Certainly not cheap (even used), but speed does come at a price. So, I've been experimenting with shooting under low-light conditions as well over the past couple of nights (night interiors with practical flourescents as the sole sources). I was also initially underwhelmed by the camera's low-light performance, even with the new, faster glass. But, I then, re-AE-locked a couple more stops down, and, although not as "bright," the scene cleaned up quite a bit, retaining very good colorimetry and good contrast. I think perhaps some here (including myself) are trying to shoot under such ultra-low light levels (e.g., <5 footcandles), that even the fastest lenses available wouldn't be able to remedy the problem. Also, another "contributing factor" is that the EVF is somewhat misleading, since the noise isn't really visible on that screen, and footage that I thought I was capturing with little noise, actually had a lot of noise when later viewed on larger displays.

I think Matt mentioned to keep your blacks, "black," which I think is both a good tip, and a good rule-of-thumb to follow (I would also like to hear more from Matt regarding his curve experiments). If the camera is literally seeing in the dark, you can bet it's pumping its ISO to new (noisy) heights: e.g., EI 1000 or more. Once I AE-locked to expose the darkest areas of my scene (probably 1-2 footcandles at most) to be truly "black," my image quality was greatly improved.
 
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I keep the EVF right in the middle. I evaluate my noise by zooming in. I first thought, hey this camera will see what I see and that wasn't the case. But it wasn't about the "blacks" being noisy, it was a brown door or wall or bricks having noise that I had to get rid of. And it could've been a well lit room. A fast lens takes care of all that.

I'm gonna upload a raw video file, straight from the camera, of using the auto exposure to get rid of the noise for those who are having trouble.

Curves dont' really do much in my opinion. The standard, neutral have been fair for me so far.
 
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