I've been shooting my D80 in aperture mode, and have been getting very grainy photos even with wide open apertures. I seem to have more problems with my 60mmNikkor 1:2.8D lens than with the zoom which came with the camera. The polarizing filters seem to make it all worse.

The cameras ISO seems to be set at 1000 by default. I have not adjusted it, so I presume its on auto. Do you have any advice on how I can get away from these grainy photos?

thanks,

Lucia

Sounds like you might have auto-ISO turned on and not configured in a good way. First, turn it off if it is on.

Then take a few test shots using a low ISO.
Then take a few more with some middle ISOs, all manually chosen.

Then, if you want auto-ISO on, go through the steps to set it up to include the low ISOs.

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Joseph K
Seattle, WA, USA

D700, D200, D70S, 24-70mm f/2.8, VR 70-200mm f/2.8 II, 50mm f/1.4 D,
17-55mm f/2.8 DX, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 DX

Hi Lucia,

Welcome to Nikonians!
The Digital equvalent to grain is noise. The D80 starts to get noisy at about ISO 640 or so and is very noisy at ISO 1000.
Go into the camera menu and set the ISO to 100 and the exposure mode to P, S, A, or M mode. Note Program (P) exposure mode is similar to Auto mode, though you will have to deploy the built in Speedlight if you want or need flash. See page 43 in the D80 Users Manual
Always use the lowest ISO possible for the given ambient conditions.
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

It seems that adding fill light in the raw mode adds noise. Is this the case? Is there any way around it?

Hi Lucia,

Set the camera to it's base ISO and Nail the Exposure.
The higher the ISO setting the higher the noise.
Underexposing the image also increases noise.
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

It might be I use mostly ISO100 also during post production you might want to use blur feature in Photoshop set about 5 points to lower noise or in Lightroom. Personally I prefer PS

Apertures, lenses, and filters aren't responsible for noise (grain). If you are shooting at a high ISO, you will get more noise. If you underexpose, you will get more noise. Adding fill light or using any other process to lighten the darker areas of an image will add noise.

Shoot at a lower ISO and get your exposures correct.

Alan

100% correct. Fill light has nothing todo. Under or over exposure in combination wh high ISO can potentially ruin any photo.