Spent some time the other night attempting to teach myself something about lighting and composition. I ended up with about 45 shots of almost complete darkness, but I managed to save a couple by putting them into Photoshop and playing with the lightness and contrast settings. The result was a bit unexpected considering that both the bottle and the drape behind it are lavender. I think it works though. It almost looks like a painting.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I could get rid of some of the graininess though? Shot was taken with my little Kodak digital.

I really like the simplicity & contrast of this. Maybe if you duplicate the layer & do a gaussian blur, set the layer to low opacity, it would help with the graininess, you might have to sharpen some of the detail... Someone else will probably have a better idea!

Here is the 'better' (!) idea: convert the image into b/w, and obtain a grainy, beautiful photo that is shot on high ISO film..! :P Well, a rather jokeful suggestion this is... :) I liked the composition, lighting, and the bottle itself. But, I really do not have any idea for dealing effectively with such large and multicolored grains... Regards...

Try using more light. You can have more light which gives the impression of darkness but does not push your camera to create the digital junk. If the resulting dark areas are NOT dark enough you can post process them to make them darker. Otherwise I think you could blur the background which will get rid of a lot of the weird dots. I hope you don't moind me adjusting your photo. But that is what I tried to do. Basically I selected regions and applied the blur filter. Then redrew in blending areas. Bsteph

Try using more light. You can have more light which gives the impression of darkness but does not push your camera to create the digital junk. If the resulting dark areas are NOT dark enough you can post process them to make them darker. Otherwise I think you could blur the background which will get rid of a lot of the weird dots. I hope you don't moind me adjusting your photo. But that is what I tried to do. Basically I selected regions and applied the blur filter. Then redrew in blending areas. Bsteph

45 shots of almost complete darkness, but I managed to save a couple by putting them into Photoshop and playing with the lightness and contrast settings. First off need to figure out why things were so dark. I assume you were using something like full manual setting in order to experiment with different light and contrast? How were you determining your "average" exposure? Seems like this was incorrect if everything was too dark. The brightness range is then determined by the placement (distance) and wattage of the lights on either side of the object. Contrast depends mostly on the "broadness" or fuzziness of the light sources. There is a pretty good tutorial on lighting in the --learning center--. As you have it, with pre-photoshop images very dark, all the levels captured are squashed down at the dark end. The photoshopping just expands everything, also amplifying the noise. This is about the worst condition, as the CCD or CMOS sensors in digital cameras tend to be noisiest at the dark ranges. Or, doruksal said, use the noise creatively.

Taltos, slapped wrists, buddy!! if you're using digital you've got NO excuse....lol (that's coming from someone who a few months ago had the same problem - worse actually, coz you didn't use a live subject that complains it is bored.) ANyways, I ended up setting the camera on auto, pressing the shutter halfway to see what settings it was going to use, then using those setting and upping them slightly to give a lighter overall picture. all in all, a little more light does no harm either..... (",)

Won't be able to see if this is any good till I post it and see the original with it, but what the hell, I'll chance it!

PC. I don't know about your camera but mine has this really bright display which often fools me into thinking the picture is bright and has enough contrast. So I can understand Taltos's surprise. Also mine has probably fewer controls. As a result I am presented with the opportunity to create creative pictures all the time!!! Isn't Sony wonderful. Bsteph

Played with a couple of black & white versions of this last night (hrm... *very* early this morning, actually). Any thoughts on these?

The first is simply converted to black & white.

Next one...

Inverted colors in image, copied to another layer, and then converted to black & white. It's too dark for my tastes, but it seemed to eliminate the grain.

The second one is too dark but turning noise into grain as you have in the first looks good, if it still seems too much try a slight blur over that... Maybe if you play around with the levels in the dark one it would work, the smoothness on the cloth in the upper part is really nice.

Wow! I really like that second one, but it does seem a little 'flat' with that grey overtone. A bit of playing about perhaps? Nice elimination of the noise though, a really smooth effect! (".)