How to Get Noise-less Landscape Images at High ISOs

Landscape Photography  •  Photography Tips

We tend to photograph landscapes at low ISOs to keep camera noise at bay. But shooting at a lower ISO is not always possible. In certain scenarios, like when the light is low or when there’s wind blowing, you will need to raise the ISO. How do you handle noise? In today’s video, we have photographer Mads Peter Iversen to show us why raising your ISO when shooting landscapes is not a bad thing, and how you can get rid of the noise.

You’ll come across circumstances where shooting at the base ISO won’t cut it. A basic example is when you’re shooting in low-light conditions. Moreover, in landscape photography, you usually set the lens to a higher f-number setting for a higher depth of field. As you know, a higher f-number means less light. Slowing the shutter could be one solution, but, again, if it’s windy, this could lead to blurry leaves and vegetation. The only solution is to increase the ISO.

Increasing the ISO means the camera’s processor will amplify the signal to make the image brighter. Some digital noise will be introduced in the process, but that’s nothing to be scared of. Understand your camera’s ISO capabilities and identify the limit to which you can push your camera while still getting acceptable images. This way, when you’re on the field, you don’t have to stress about noise.

Even if there’s some noise in your images, you can use software like Photoshop or DeNoise AI to get rid of it. Like Iversen demonstrates in the video, these applications are really good at removing noise easily. With Photoshop, there’s a slight risk of the image appearing soft after noise reduction. But with the techniques that Iversen explains in the video, you can effectively add in those details easily.

Are you afraid of images with noise or do you think noise is natural?