Better Available Light Digital Photography : How to Make the Most of Your Night and Low-light Shots

Digital noise 57

Noise comes from many sources

Digital noise from sunspots? Yup. Scientists, especially astrono-

mers, analyze hot pixels to measure the effects of solar particles

and cosmic rays on digital images and you could extrapolate that

sunspots indirectly cause hot pixels due to the solar particles and

cosmic rays they generate. Closer to earth, there are other elec-

tromagnetic sources that cause noise in your digital images. Here

are some situations that you should avoid:

1. Photographers should avoid placing external battery packs
   close to their digital cameras. Some of these packs contain
   transformers that raise voltage levels for faster fl ash recy-
   cling and emit electromagnetic interference at the same
   time. This can result in severe degradation of digital image
   quality with heavy banding effects. In such cases, the best
   work-around is to carry the battery pack on a belt or a photo
   vest while connecting it to the fl ash unit via a cable.


2. Photographers should also avoid taking pictures close to
   other strong sources of electromagnetic energy. For example,
   it’s quite common to see heavy banding in digital images
   shot from the observation deck at the Empire State Building
   in NYC due to the presence of strong antennas at the top
   of the building. Similar situations can occur in sports
   photography when the photographer is standing too close

This photograph was made with a Leica D-Lux 2 point-and-shoot camera. Exposure was 3.2 seconds at f/6.3
at ISO 80. (Joe thought it was set for 800, proving that even guys who write books should use a fl ashlight
at night to check their camera settings.) Although not tack sharp, the photo is almost acceptably sharp enough
due to the D-Lux-2’s built-in image stabilization, which, in this particular rocky boat situation, was probably
a better bet than a tripod. © 2006 Joe Farace.