Picture Noise

[tegan]

You often get noise or grain in your photo from one of more of the following:

1. setting a high ISO ... 1600 and above

2. a long shutterspeed of 1 second or more

3. a hot processor due to perhaps some continuous or frequent shooting or even very hot weather.

What is important to know is that some high frequency photo noise may be visible on some LCD screens but it is too fine to show up in print and therefore should not be a concern for most. Low frequency heavy grain is the visual problem.

Cameras tend to have built in noise processing for high ISOs and long shutterspeeds that can be turned off or on in a menu. The problem is that solutions to noise in camera often involve softening the image and that is not what many photographers want. The challenge is to balance a sharp image against the absence of noise which is often a compromise.

A lot of noise software tends to increase contrast particularly at edges and even create "halos" and artifacts which are as bad as the original noise.

Does anyone here use standalones or plug-ins for noise and which have you found to be the absolute best?

Tegan

[tirediron]

Great post; very informative. Thanks!

[tegan]

Interesting!.... So do you ignore noise, correct it in Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, or Gimp etc. or use Noise Ninja, Focal Blade, Noiseware, etc.?

Tegan

[kiley9806]

tegan, i actually have a picture that i oversharpened and the noise has become really nasty... it's created a halo effect. (its the one of an owl that im thinking about, ive posted it in the monthly contest forum for 'patriotism'). its nothing too important, but reading this thread got me thinking you might be able to help...i was wondering if theres a technique you know of in paintshop pro for correcting it? thanks!

[tegan]

tegan, i actually have a picture that i oversharpened and the noise has become really nasty... it's created a halo effect. (its the one of an owl that im thinking about, ive posted it in the monthly contest forum for 'patriotism'). its nothing too important, but reading this thread got me thinking you might be able to help...i was wondering if theres a technique you know of in paintshop pro for correcting it? thanks!

Well, if it is OK with you, I can show you what can be done with your owl strictly in Paintshop and if you like what you see, I can go through the methodology.

Tegan

[kiley9806]

sure - thatd be great. thanks!
heres the shot...
:)

[tegan]

Here is my edit. Is this the type of fix, you were looking to do?

Tegan

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb176/ocophoto/Kileyowl_ed.jpg

[kiley9806]

Here is my edit. Is this the type of fix, you were looking to do?

Tegan

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb176/ocophoto/Kileyowl_ed.jpg

thanks tegan - that backgroud and lighter face look much better! can you explain your process? the only thing is that the eyes look not sharp enough now, but thats maybe un-fixable. thanks for the help!

[tegan]

The eyes are a problem but I did get them a little better in this one.

Tegan

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb176/ocophoto/Kileyowl_ed2.jpg

[Marko]

Big improvement tegan! Could you have masked out the eyes before applying the effect?

[tegan]

As to method. The problem is noise in the background and the owl is dark and not as sharp as it could be. A normal approach to noise reduction would soften the owl even more. So using only PaintShop Pro.

Select the magic wand and across the top there is a menu related to the wand. "Tolerance" determines whether you are selecting just one colour and shade or perhaps a few variations. In this case the number should be set at about 5.

Click anywhere in the blue area and if the dotted moving line encloses the whole blue area great. If not, it may surround some of the blue background. If this is the case, hold down the shift key, while at the same time clicking the mouse in the area not surrounded, until all the blue area is outlined.

Then go to the eye dropper icon on the left side. Click to pick up the icon and click on any area of blue. Go back to the left and down toward the bottom is the paint can icon (FILL) Pick up the icon and move it to the enclosed (with the dotted line) blue area and click. It will fill up the background with the same blue colour ONLY without the noise.

In SELECTION which is top left icon, chose the irregular rope icon. Go to the inside area of the owl, click and draw a rough irregular shape close to but not on the edge of the owl. (You are sort of outlining the owl but from INSIDE its shape, completely around.) You now should have the moving dotted line which indicates a new selection.

Go to the pull down menu at the top (Adjust) and under sharpness there is unsharp mask. Click on it and a sub menu comes up. In that menu check LUMINANCE ONLY and a radius of about 2. Strength can be fine tuned according to what you see in the preview screen, or left at the default.
Chose OK at the bottom and sharpness is done.

There is also on the left about the middle an ICON that allows you to use a brush for sharpening, softening, burning, dodging etc. You may want to use that to selectively improve brightening, sharpening etc.

One eye was very blurred, so I went to the select menu changed rectangle to circle and clicked to select the left eye. In edit at the top I chose COPY and PASTE as new selection. I then used the mouse to move a copy of the left eye over to the right and after a click, I dropped it there for a further improvement.

Tegan