http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to An entire Lightstalkers thread via RSS/XML. en-us Hello Lightstalkers! I have been photographing with my Ricoh GRD II on RAW for the first time. I know it's best to work on 200 iso only with such a compact camera, but I played around on higher iso also.. What's the BEST way to reduce noise? I'm using Photoshop CS3 & Bridge. Thanx in advance to ya all! Rosa Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:34:02 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to Hi Rosa, You need 'Noise Ninja' or similar software to fine control the noise removal on your photos. http://www.picturecode.com/ Best wishes, JR. Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:51:38 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134095 Hi Rosa. You can correct with photoshop, copy a layer of the background and turn the mode to color. With this new layer selected go to filter, blur, gaussian blur. Move the slide until you don't see the noise. Flatten and that's all. Saludos Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:21:24 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134102 Rosa, I agree with John. Noise Ninja is a great product for reducing noise at higher ASAs. You can access it from within Photoshop as a plug-in. Cheers, Roger Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:22:09 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134103 Hang on. Before you start removing noise, try and eliminate it when you're converting your raw to tiff/jpg. Dunno what the native RAW converter for Ricoh is but there's as a good chance that their software handle the files that the camera makes quite well i.e. it could produce less noise in jpg/tiff. Try other RAW converters too it you can, and if you cant try various adjustments (in PS Adobe Camera Raw the third tab over is your noise reduction sliders). If you still have too much noise THEN use something like noise ninja. Any doctor will tell you that you are better off NOT breaking your leg rather than getting it fixed well. Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:31:17 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134106 THANX all, I've heard about Noise Ninja. But I am quite broke after 3 months travelling in Indonesia ;-) right now...But thanx JR (but my birthday is coming up soon...) Herman, I will try one file with your suggestion at look at the outcome. Am wondering about the noise slider in Bridge? Yes, Con You're mentioning something I have noticed too: the Ricoh RAW/DNG file comes with a jpg that looks MUCH better! But is it good enough? Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:43:18 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134109 where is this jpg from?? from 'in camera' or made from some software? Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:08:32 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134110 Hi Con, I think it's Ricoh's in-camera software, because I intended to photograph on RAW only, but the jpg files came with it. Rather handy now I come to think of it... cheers, Rosa Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:23:32 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134112 Hernan, do you mean change the blend mode to color? Rosa, you already have the capability in CS3. Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise. I don't know why but photographers always seem to think they need to buy the loads of software and gadgets hocked to them to get things done when 90% of the time these tools don't do anything they can't already do. CS3's "Reduce Noise" is very good, from my tests it holds its own with Noise Ninja. The biggest difference is sometimes the tones are different between the two. Give it a shot. Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:33:55 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134131 Yes. I mean the blend mode. Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:42:50 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134153 I have used the method described by Hernan multiple times and it works very well. It will desaturate the image a little strangely sometimes but that is easily corrected with a little more photoshop love. I have also used the noise filters and had positive results. The best technique, however, I have found is to actually use the Blur>Surface Blur Filter on the individual RGB channels. The technique is outlined well in the beginning of this video: http://www.planetphotoshop.com/remove-noise.html . Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:25:05 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#134161 Sorry Ryan, I was away...and just read your post right now. Tried it and the outcome looks really good. THANX! Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:36:45 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#135891 "Any doctor will tell you that you are better off NOT breaking your leg rather than getting it fixed well." Con, that's brilliant and very Irish of you. I'm prepping loads of stuff for Alamy at the moment and much of it was shot with a D100 some years back and I'm trying to neutralize loads of noise. However, because the D100 was a slow camera in RAW the shots are native jpeg to tiff and require lots of NR treatment, unfortunately. I will try some of the techniques here before I apply Noise Ninja. Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:13:34 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#135973 there are quite a few noise reduction plugins out there, noise ninja is one, NIK has Dfine, which is another good one. Dfine and others work on specific "profiles" for a particular camera model... each chip makes noise in a characteristic way, and the software applies corrections based on that characteristic. In addition, if you're working with RAW files as Smart Object layers, many of them that are "Filters" get applied as "Smart Filters", that is, they are editable and adjustable repeatedly. To answer the "best" part of the question, there is no "best" way. You have to try out the options and see what you like best. Most plugins have trial downloads, but you need to do your homework. Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:02:18 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/noise-reduction-how-to#135982