Noise

[planetc]

It never bothered me too much before, although a lot of people said they couldn't live with the noise on the 50d at higher iso I was quite comfortable with the results. Having had some opportunities to shoot at more sensible levels, and now looking back through some of my older shots from the winter league, I am horrified at the noise levels. Trying to pick through the images to post some on my website is like looking for a handful of salt on a Carribean beach!
My skills have come a long way in recent months, but my tolerance of noise has gone with it.
I'll salvage a few, and no doubt that the majority of the owners will love them anyway, but the galleries are going to be a little sparse.
I will be looking at my options when funds allow I think.

[Parsen66]

Re: Noise

Paul for me in the early days of my photography journey it was more about getting a decent picture that's well exposed and well composed. Back then noise was not something that bothered me either , plenty of other challenges to contend with. As my skill has progressed and I'm sure the same for you, we criticise our images more than we should, we seek perfection always and zoom in far too much and too often.

I have one of my fav books to my side, Don McCullin In England. I wonderful black and white book all shot in the 50's and 60's and the noise levels on most are terrible. But it suits the gritty type of shots he took back then. Noise can be acceptable if it's in context I suppose.

There are some great noise reducing programs about there which I use but to be honest LR does a great job as it is.

Having said all of the above, we all like a new camera, so go for it and noise will be something you won't worry about so much, just everything else lol

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: Noise

I tend to not do much noise reduction if it's not impacting the image. I'd rather have some light noise and keep the overall detail level than remove the noise and lose the details. But I'm willing to admit I may well be in a minority...

[planetc]

Re: Noise

Images look fine at normal viewing size, it's just that moment when you are finalising it in lightroom and you do the 100% thing. Lose the noise, lose the details, leave it and you are left knowing it's there, lol.

[Parsen66]

Re: Noise

Images look fine at normal viewing size, it's just that moment when you are finalising it in lightroom and you do the 100% thing. Lose the noise, lose the details, leave it and you are left knowing it's there, lol.

It's a vicious circle Paul lol

[planetc]

Re: Noise

I think it's too easy to place too much priority on low noise. I've just done a little experiment with a shot of my girl taken at 2500 indoors in January (50d remember so getting close to its limits). A little more time spent than usual getting the balance between NR and sharpening and an 8x10 print looks great. When we first started competing 3 or 4 years ago there was a pro tog that was using a 1d of some variant, and we purchased a couple of 7x5s from him. Granted he undoubtedly hadn't done any post work, but my 8x10 is better than the 7x5s he was selling. It's not of the same standard as the shots I'm producing outside at 400 or less, but it's still a mighty fine image that I would be happy to mount and place on a wall in my home.

[neilrich1966]

Re: Noise

I am no expert (rubish compared to others on this forum) but I have always been told that composition is key.

[planetc]

Re: Noise

That and focus I think. Although I still get the wife looking over my shoulder when I'm reviewing a days shots saying 'I love that one' whilst I'm hitting the R key, lol. I'm sure she is typical of a large proportion of my audience, who don't see the technical aspects the way we do.

[neilrich1966]

Re: Noise

True

[Tigger]

Re: Noise

I'm sure she is typical of a large proportion of my audience, who don't see the technical aspects the way we do.

and thats the key and probably why the pro set you bought yrs ago for most would be nice shots, but we look at images differently and thats the difference between snappers and photographers and why our keen eyes will throw many out that most would be proud off

[the black fox]

Re: Noise

I don't use Lightroom but do use PS6 the luminosity setting in that will if your carefull remove subject noise without losing to much detail ,I then layer the subject and remove remaining background noise via a plug in n/r tool ,then sharpen subject

[Parsen66]

Re: Noise

and thats the key and probably why the pro set you bought yrs ago for most would be nice shots, but we look at images differently and thats the difference between snappers and photographers and why our keen eyes will throw many out that most would be proud off

Ditto that 100%

[planetc]

Re: Noise

I don't tend to have too much difficulty removing noise from background areas. The challenge is when you have a dark dog, particularly shorter haired ones, and wish to remove the noise from it without destroying the fur detail. It's a very fine line to avoid turning the dogs hair into a smeary mess. Specialist software might help I guess, I've read good things about some. I have found that using exposure compensation helps with the dark ones, reducing the need to raise the shadows, but then you have to watch the highlights obviously.

[the black fox]

Re: Noise

with ALL canon cameras you have to expose to the right to get the best from them ,the histogram is your friend here ,if possible (i know its not always) take a couple of test shots and review on the histogram you should have at least some detail on the bottom of the fifth box on the right .if not + compensate till you have .saves a lot of aggro in P/P

[DrJon]

Re: Noise

Software's improved in leaps and bounds over time, so if you have Raw files you could run them through Neat Image or DXO with Prime noise reduction enabled and probably get better results.