Noise - is it best dealt with...

[frankg]

I have started using a small pocketable camera (Sony RX100) as my 'carry everywhere' camera and shooting RAW files to allow me to extract the max quality.

It exhibits quite a lot of noise for my taste (small sensor). Very noticeable 'cos I'm often on a slow-ish shutter speed. Even though I try to limit my iso to a max of 400. It's particularly, a problem when enlarging for a big print.

Is noise reduction best dealt with :
1. in camera
2. in RAW conversion (I have ACR with sliders for Luminance & Color)
3. in Photoshop (Noise reduction filter)
4. (I'm not keen to buy a 3rd party plug-in)

Thanks

[bart_hickman]

Re: Noise - is it best dealt with...

Doing it in Photoshop is too much work for every photo IMO. Just use ACR 99% of the time and then use Photoshop if you feel you need to give more attention.

Bart

[Rob1n]

Re: Noise - is it best dealt with...

You can create quite an effective noise reduction filter in photoshop, set up as an action. Protecting your highlight detail with a luminosity mask. If you upload a typical example I can write an action for you.

[mistermonday]

Re: Noise - is it best dealt with...

IMHO, and experience, the best place to get rid of the noise is in Camera RAW or LR.
I always turn the NR settings in the camera to OFF because it slows the camera porcessing down considerably and I don't trust the camera to apply low medium or high NR correctly.
All RAW processors like ACR, LR, ViewNX, etc, make modifications to the pixel values when exporting an image to TIFF or JPG mapped to some color space. Often, fragile data gets clipped making it very difficult for most NR programs to cope with.
ACR / LR are fine tuned to remove noise in their environment. They apply the appropriate changes so that there is no opportunity to clip the data when exporting it.
You can see examples of what I refer to here. Don't bother reading the thread, just the last post #36.

http://photocamel.com/forum/image-editing-color-management-workflow/178413-noise-ninja-4.html#post1825822

Cheers, Murray

[frankg]

Re: Noise - is it best dealt with...

Thanks for that - it was great to see ACR doing the job so well. I'll stick with it.

And thanks for the offer (@Rob1) to write an action based on luminosity masking but that's not what I'm looking for at this point

[crazyfly1]

Re: Noise - is it best dealt with...

Hi Frankg, I use a small camera to carry on walks with the dog. I'm not familiar with the camera you carry but my camera will allow me to go into the menu and set the iso. All of the other adjustments still happen automatically but the iso I keep set at 80 or 100. In shots I take in lower light (say around dusk) I take them into lightroom and adjust the exposure. Seems to work pretty well and it's easier to fix the exposure than the noise. Just a thought.