Signal to noise ratios in photography

Today I am going to talk about the signal to noise ratio in photography, once you understand this and how noise is created by your camera, you can start being able to create better images and you’ll have a better understanding of your camera.

My Equipment list:

If you would like to see more, subscribe and turn on notifications for weekly videos, hints and tips and more. If you know anyone who would benefit from this video, share and like the video.

Thanks

Mike

So many good songs and sound effects on the epidemic sound website, go check them out!!

#boxheadmike Affiliate links
Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means at no extra cost to you I will make a small commission, if you click them and make a qualifying purchase.

[Jam_]

Definitely deserves more views. I’m trying to explain signal to noise ratio to a friend and this did it perfectly!

[bioliv]

This was long, I fell to sleep half way and woke up with a chock when advertisements came on. Thanks a lot for the information in the first half part though!

[bogeyphoenix]

Super clean explanation man, and great sound too! Makes it really pleasing to listen to!

[stephenwoodburn]

Wow, that was a ton of information, Mike. Thank you for breaking that down for us and explaining why we see the different noise levels in situations where we tried to prevent that very thing. Exposure first is how I try to shoot, making myself push my ISO a little more. Stay tuned next week when Mike explains exactly how NASA designs propulsion systems to follow exact trajectories that interact with different gravitational orbits. I can't wait.

[PacoM.]

This was something I've never really had a good grasp on. Amazing explanation. Love all the activity and conversations in the Facebook group you've got going. :)

[atephoto]

FYI, Sony is dual iso isoless, so when you pull up the exposure from 100 +4 stops - it is actually better starting at ISO640 and boosting 1 stop or so. ISO 100 and 640 on Sony is the native isoless settings. 640 has more DR and less noise than 500. I use 640 when shooting nightsky, etc. If I underexpose at 640 I will retain details in the hightlights which would be lost at ISO 1250, this while sticking at the best dual ISO setting to increase the dark part of the image. ISO640 have a different voltage than ISO100 I think. Some dude explained this very well, I think his name is Kasson. Check his blog.

[DiganntSurti]

Thank you so much Sir. You explained it so well and with simple language. When I was graduating, we had photography as subject, I couldn't understand Signal to Noise Ratio's concept. Wish I had watched this video earlier. But this video is really helpful, will recommend this to my friends. I will surely check out your Facebook page and will sign up.

[dobriradev]

Really really useful sir ! thank u ! u were really helpful and ur way explaining all these stuff even better!

[jamilachowdhury]

such a wonderful lecture... thx. i'm now a fan of you

[dsotm]

Great video Mike, most certainly be watching again, will try harder to get it right in camera from now on. 🤘

[gustavotorresvan]

oh man! i have been doing it soo wrong!! thinking that is better to bump the exposure in lightroom that to bring up the iso on camera! because i came from canon!.... thanks again for sharing your knowledge mike!! big like to this video!

[alanp]

Really interesting topic & well covered Mike, Thanks . . . also to "Joe" who obviously had input as you mentioned as well !
A couple of the points made were "Light Bulb" moments for me. Cheers.

[chryseass.]

Definitely going to be watching this video twice, Mike - a lot of dense but highly interesting information. ( ha, is this "27 minute Thursday"?) The best thing that I ever did was learn how to shoot manual with confidence so all of this makes a lot of sense!

[ItsOnlyFil]

Thanks Mike. I don't think this has been brought up, but for someone who is often exposed to noise, in his photography, like night photo, astrophotography, would you recommend to use a full frame sensor camera ? Or would a full frame sensor be significantly (I insist on this word) reducing noise ? Thanks !

[onikaimu]

Wow, so much information. Very interesting subject. I feel this is something that can make good photos into great photos.

[amatijaca]

This is very interesting and educational! I have a Sony A7R iv - it has high ISO and low light noise correction ability in camera. What do you think of these camera builtin noise reducers?

[paulm]

2BorNot2B— Long but thorough explanation, Mike. How does in-cam long exposure noise reduction compare w/noise reduction in LR? Is one preferable to the other? Some say always keep Sony’s in-cam noise reduction off.

[pablogalindo]

Awesome stuff. Now I am a little confused about you're examples. The first and second sample images were shot with the same settings ISO 200 f8 and 1/200s ...so how did you underexpose the second image keeping the same settings as the first properly exposed one?

[viktorpaulsen]

You mention "high iso noise", but that is not a good term. The noise in question is not due to high ISO, but it is due to low amount of light hitting the sensor, which gives a low signal/noise ratio (the topic of the video). For isoless (iso-invariant) sensors the signal/noise ratio is independent of the ISO setting. For traditional cameras (e.g., Canon), the noise is reduced (not increased) when cranking up ISO on camera, for a given amount of light hitting the sensor (which you also correctly said in the video) (while not blowing out highlights) because analog amplification amplifies the signal before it becomes blended with more downstream noise sources in the system. Another comment I have is about "Exposure". There is a slider in Lightroom named "Exposure". It should have been "Gain" or "Amplification". To me, the exposure means only aperture setting and exposure time, which define to what extent the sensor is exposed to light when the image is captured. ISO is applied later as analog or digital amplification. A question: In the images you made with lens cap on, did you use the same aperture and exposure time for both examples (low ISO setting and high ISO setting)? If you, however, used smaller aperture opening or shorter exposure time for the "high ISO noise" image, then what you termed high ISO noise was not really that, it was reduced light noise, (reduced signal/noise ratio noise). For a given amount of light, turning up ISO either makes no change to noise or reduces noise.

[squareball]

Ever considered being a professional voice couch?