Noise - maybe it's good?

[ReggieABrown]

This may sound crazy, but I absolutely love the noise at iso 1600 coming from my 7d Mark ii. Especially when the image is cropped. It's kinda film-grain like. Just my opinion though.

 

[sagittariansrock]

Noise; you are at 35mm focal length, the subject is not moving, and yet you are at 1/200s - Justify it with non-importance of noise but I won't hear you. To me, that is just a lack of technique.

Or a lack of a steady hand. Not all of us hold cameras still enough for a slower shutter speed, you know.

Someone who can't hold a camera steady for more than 1/200 of a second is at a serious disadvantage...
(FYI, I know it's not impossible- e.g., for people with essential tremors)

 

[fragilesi]

OK so the title is BS but I'm sitting here watching Californcation on netflix and thinking this was all done with cameras with a lot of noise. And they use that noise. To good effect.

Anyone else seen that and care to comment?

I post this because there are endless threads here about all the noise in pictures. Here's a 7D example:

http://www.mcvoy.com/lm/bill+pam/32.html

Yup, if I'm looking for the noise I see it. But if I'm looking at the picture I don't. I just see a guy I know in low light, in a picture I like. I know, the noise is awful. But the pic is not bad, it's one of my favorites.

So are we all too focussed on the noise and not enough on the picture?

Yes, sometimes we are. I think it's worth reading some of the critique on here, however undiplomatically it's worded in places. Manners and technique don't always go hand in hand it seems.

I would guess that you just captured a moment. I'm sure you'd rather that boy wasn't in the background for example but that's what happens when you capture something on the spur of the moment and if you wanted to you could edit it. A lot of what is being suggested is good "technical" advice. Sure, wait for the boy to leave the background, take the time to compose, focus, change the camera settings to get a good, technical picture.

But then, he's looking the other way, he has a different expression. It's better technically but it ends up in the Recycle Bin with a lot of other near identical, technically superior photos.

Just enjoy your picture, a lot of us can see exactly why you like it!