Grain in Post

[Dmitry Yun]

I recently began my fork with my newly purchased GL2. The Images I get are superb, I can't get over the color quality. I feel like a kid again playing with it. But what bothers me is when I get footage from low light, it gives me too much grain. I've heard of the grain surgeon from the Marla thread, but was wondering if there are any other simpler solutions that I can take, because I looked for the plug-in and haven't had any luck. By the way i use Premier 6.5 and Pro in post and I also have After Affects but I haven't got around to learning how to use it :(

Any advice?
Thanks

[Rob Lohman]

Yes: don't get the grain in the first place.

As you've found out it is very hard to remove grain in post. The
best way to not have to do this is to make sure there is no grain
to begin with. Learn your camera's manual controls so you can
tweak it as much as possible without getting grain. If the light
is so low that this doesn't help then you simply need to add light
to what you are shooting.

[Dmitry Yun]

Cool, But say i want that effect of low light :)heh What would you suggest be the best setting on my GL for the low light performance?

Thanks

[Rob Lohman]

If you want low-light simply increase the gain. That will introduce
grain into the image.

[Bill Hardy]

I've got some pretty good low light shots here:

http://homepage.mac.com/bhardy3/PhotoAlbum8.html

But I forgot what settings I used. Just sit in what you would consider a dimly lit room and play with the settings.

Check out spotlight mode in low light also. As I recall it absolutely prohibits grain in low light. You can always brighten the footage in post if it is too dark, though I have not tried it.

[Federico Dib]

<<<-- Originally posted by Dmitry Yun : Cool, But say i want that effect of low light :)heh What would you suggest be the best setting on my GL for the low light performance?

Thanks -->>>

I´m not sure what you mean here by "effect of low light"... but if you want some shots to "look like" it´s dark... then I´d say.. light it properly and close the diafragm (F stops) as much as you can, use the ND or whatever to make it look dark... or/and reduce the lightness in post, etc.. without using gain (grain).

For example, to make a dinner candle light scene I will not use the light of the candle... I´ll use a lot of lights and tweak the camera until ir "looks like" the candle is giving the light, or play with the shot on post.
This way you avoid the grain.

If you can´t light the shot, then your other option to avoid grain is to slow down the shutter speed... but It will introduce a blurred effect on moving objects...
In any case.. if you can´t light a dark scene, you´ll have to sacrifice somewhere....

[Dmitry Yun]

Thanks for the advice guys. Bill those shots are gorgeous man. I love the ones on the highway, thats what I meant by getting a low light kind of shot without the grain. If you remember those settings. Please share em bro.

Thanks again.