I have recently bought a Nikon 7MP digital camera. I have taken a couple of pictures with best 7MP resolution and 5x optical zoom. When I transferred those pictures to my computer and saw them in full size they looked very grainy and water coloured at some places. It is not just me; I have seen such pictures taken by a variety of digital cameras. Can somebody tell me the reason of these grainy pictures? Is it possible to take high quality, sharp pictures like the ones you see in ads and at www.photosig.com (Warning: some pictures might contain softcore nudity). One reason you may be getting excessive "noise" or "grain" is not enough light. All consumer grade point and shoot digital cameras will have this problem. Try using your flash, whether it's day or night. And check the cameras ISO setting as this could affect your noise also. You want the lowest setting possible (100-200).
You will need to upgrade to a digital SLR camera before you find the quality of sensor and "in-camera" technology that reduces the noise to acceptable levels, and to get those high quality, sharp pictures you see in ads. Even with my Canon 5D (12.8 Mp), I still occasionally get some noise when I am shooting at night, or extreme low-light situations like concerts, night sporting events and such. Too see what's possible with a high end digital SLR, check out my website at www.pixelperfectimages.net. If you want to email me one of you photos, I can take a look and try to figure out exactly what the problem is. Good quality photo paper helps. But it can't do anything for the resolution of either the software or the printer. Can you post an example?
Anyway were you at full zoom? If so have you tried a tripod? The more you zoom out the more sensitive the camera will be. When you sat Water Colored do you mean washed out? If so do you have an option for saturation? Or vivid/rgb options? There are a few possible culprits for grainy or pixelated digital photos. The first is shooting in low light. Some of the technologies to boost exposures can cause grain. Next is using digital zoom. Third is the file type and compression used when saving. If you have the option of saving images in a non-lossy format (Camera RAW, tiff) with no compression, you can choose this. Also check settings to check if you're actually shooting at highest resolution/file size.
I work with photographers and sometimes have to use event photos and so on shot on a variety of digitals. I myself use an 8MP digital. But I've seen pixelation or "grain" on shots from every consumer digital camera, regardless of resolution. The ke, unfortunately, is to shoot big and print smaller. The only digital shots I see which don't have this are from high-end digital SLRs and large formats. I assume that you bought a point and shoot Nikon (not a DSLR).
The "grain" or "noise" may come from several sources or a combination of factors. I'll point it to two main culprits:
1) High ISO settings
2) Poorly exposed photo.
I presume you are shooting in "automatic mode." This setting should be no problem when taking outdoor shots under bright conditions. Your pictures should turn out ok. But when taking indoor shots or under poor light conditions, the camera could actually compensate by "automatically" increasing ISO setting for you to get enough speed to take pictures handheld.
Secondly, when you zoom, you are also starving the camera of light. The "zooming" action decreases the aperture of the lens and, to compensate for less light entering the camera, the camera "automatically" increases its ISO to make it more sensitive to light. The offshoot of this is that you will end with a grainy photo. As a rule, do not zoom indoors or when you use flash. Get in close to the subject and use the widest zoom possible.
My advice to avoid "grain" is to manually set ISO to 200 or even 400 (400 shd not be that grainy) at night or indoors. But even under this setting, you will have to be the judge on what picture you can take or not. Your flash will have a useful range. There will also be a limit to how much you can zoom. I see the same problem with some of my photos and it always has to do with not enough light. Some photographers advise digital shooter to shoot 2/3rds underexposed while others advise to "shoot right", meaning to shoot to the right side of the histogram. I have less problems with digital noise when I follow the "shoot right" advice. However, some low light situations just don't allow for that. I frequently shoot basketball games and most gyms just aren't lit well enough to allow for fast shutter speeds. Slow shutters mean blur so in that situation I go with the faster shutter and just accept some digital noise.
There are programs that can help smooth that noise out. I use one called Noise Ninja. Another top program in that category is called Neat Image. Its all about the ISO speed. Once you go above 600 you will start to notice alot of grain in your pictures | 