noise when shooting RAW

[RRitch]

I have started playing around with shooting RAW, and I have noticed that there seems to be more noise with RAW than with shooting JPEG. These two pictures were taken today, the first was RAW that I then used the Adobe DNG converted with Camera Raw 3.4 to convert to DNG and then converted to JPEG. The second was shot at JPEG. It is really noticable if you zoom on the orange stripes. The only other difference is that the RAW was shot at ISO-400 and the JPEG was shot at ISO-200. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong?

RAW Image
http://static.flickr.com/115/267931496_2f58f01f4c.jpg?v=0
1/250 sec, f/16, 25mm, ISO-400 Pattern Metering, Aperature Priority


JPEG Image
http://static.flickr.com/108/267931497_457b45d2e3.jpg?v=0
1/125 sec, f/16, 30mm, ISO-200 Pattern Metering, Aperature Priority

[Wilt]

Not surprising. By definition, RAW is the result of 'no processing' for noise or sharpening, etc. In comparison, the in-camera processing of JPEG results in images which are both denoised somewhat and sharpened somewhat.

One of the adjustments that people need to make in moving from P&S to dSLR is how much less processing of JPEG images from the dSLR. RAW is even more in the direction of less is more! With RAW, the photographer is given full control, not the whim of the engineers at the manufacturer.

[Hermeto]

RAW Image is much better exposed than JPEG, IMHO..

[RRitch]

Wilt,

That makes sense. With that being the case, what is the best method with Photoshop CS to remove the noise?

[Jim_T]

You can't see anything in the photos you posted. You have to crop an 800x600 chunk out of them and post that unsized.

Noise has nothing to do with RAW or JPEG.. The reason you have more noise in the RAW shot is probably because you used ISO400 instead of 200.. Try the reverse :) Shoot a JPEG at ISO 400 and a RAW at ISO 200.

[Wilt]

Someone else will have to answer your question...I am not a Photoshop CS user. (I have used Rawshooter Premium in the past, and now wondering if Lightroom released version is gonna be suitable improvement over the beta test version...as a registered RSP user I get LR for free)

[RRitch]

Jim,

Here is the larger section. Sorry for the quality, still figuring out the cropping and sizing. You can tell what I am talking about thoug

RAW
http://static.flickr.com/104/267960588_65b1f1beda.jpg?v=0



JPEG

http://static.flickr.com/79/267960589_16270c8b83.jpg?v=0

[farrukh]

you need to move noise reduction slider to right in ACR

[drisley]

. The only other difference is that the RAW was shot at ISO-400 and the JPEG was shot at ISO-200.
That's your problem right there...

[Double Negative]

YNoise has nothing to do with RAW or JPEG.. The reason you have more noise in the RAW shot is probably because you used ISO400 instead of 200.. Try the reverse :) Shoot a JPEG at ISO 400 and a RAW at ISO 200.

Bingo.

To reduce the noise, use the color/luminance sliders in ACR under the "Details" tab. When downsizing for the Web this will kill a good deal of the noise as well.

RAW leaves more of the fine-tuning up to you, rather than presets in the camera. You have more control over many aspects of the image, even after the fact - such as exposure, white balance, noise reduction, contrast, saturation, etc.

[Tee Why]

First, noise starts to become noticable to me at about ISO 400. Second CS2 has some auto level/curves thing that you have to turn off, otherwise using levels/curves etc to bring out information from underexposed areas results in noise.

I think those are the issues here. I bet if you shoot in RAW and L JPEG in a well exposed shot and turned off that nasty cs2 default stuff, you'd notice about the same amount of noise and less so in higher ISO with RAW.

Good luck

[superdiver]

ditto to the ISO difference...

[RRitch]

Ok, well I tried it again with better results. I noticed that the Adobe DNG converter by defualt created a compressed file so I disabled that. I then used ACR to process. This time I did not go with defualts for sharpness, luminance, or color noise. This time I set sharpness at 10 Luminance smoothing at 7, and color noise at 3. The exposure is set at +.65. The first image is the new one, and I am putting the first attempt in as well for references

New RAW

http://static.flickr.com/96/268063682_1ae992704a.jpg?v=0


Previous RAW

http://static.flickr.com/104/267960588_65b1f1beda.jpg?v=0

[Double Negative]

Good job - that looks *much* better.

To further reduce noise, you can use plug-ins such as Neatimage and Noise Ninja instead. I recently started using the latter, and it does a really good job. They offer more advanced controls and even body- and ISO-specific profiles.

[drisley]

FYI, the compression of the DNG is lossless, and has 0 effect on the image quality.