Noise reduction anyone?

[amykillianphotography]

Hey guys. I took this shot last night of the girl scoring her 1000th point. It was a huge deal (no one from her school has gotten to 1000 points since 2001.) They want to make this picture into poster size. Being that I am normally a portrait photog and have no sports photography experience, it obviously isn't the best.

My question is about the noise though. I know there's a noise reducer in Photoshop. Do you guys use it (and how?) or do you use another noise reduction software? Just trying to get this image to the best it can be.

Thanks!

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1681/angi058edit1000jc1.jpg (http://imageshack.us])

Also, I have done a little PP to this image, burned out the edges, tweaked the levels and sharpened the shooter and the ball. Any help is greatly appreciated! :)

[nyktrade]

I use noiseware from imagenomic (http://www.imagenomic.com) , i think it is the best out there. Their standard/community version is free but I use the professional version because I want to preserve the EXIF data plus other advanced features. You can try any version free for 15 days I think.

[amykillianphotography]

Would you (nyktrade) or someone else mind running this image through the noiseware so I can see the results? I have a lot of shots from the game I'd like to enhance but being that I rarely shoot sports, I want to make sure the software is worth my investment. Thank you!

[Sledhed]

Try the free version of Neat Image

http://neatimage.com/index.html

[S.Horton]

I'll do it tonight, if nobody else posts.

It will clean right up.

[cosworth]

The trade off with poster prints and noise reduction is that you lose details that are CRITICAL to maintaining sharpness when enlarged.

Have you printed poster size before? LOTS of noise magically disappears. Think what the old FILM posters looked like and think 10x better from you.

I guess you can say I'm saying don't bother or just do some subtle blurring in the dark area in the back of the gym etc to kill the noise in the upper left part of the gym.

[amykillianphotography]

Thank you all! I really appreciate the advice and help!

[George E.]

I did some posters of my kid's sports for X-mas presents. I skipped the noise reduction and after PP just resized my photo to 6,000x4,000 pixels in Paint Shop Pro (photoshop will work fine too). Then uploaded them to Snapfish and got 20x30 inch posters for less than $20 each. They looked GREAT; as good as any commercial poster. Lots of detail and noise wasn't an issue. The pics were shot with an XTi at ISO 800. Noise reduction won't hurt but don't go too heavy or you'll lose detail. (as was already mentioned).

Looking at your picture, you may try a crop to make the player larger. I actually cropped a horizontal into a vertical for one poster (which worried me) and still resized to 4,000 x 6,000 pixels with no problems in the quality of the poster.

Posters are really fun and the kids love them.


George

[yogestee]

I use noiseware from imagenomic (http://www.imagenomic.com) , i think it is the best out there. Their standard/community version is free but I use the professional version because I want to preserve the EXIF data plus other advanced features. You can try any version free for 15 days I think.

I use the community version myself,,,I agree with you..

Jurgen

[S.Horton]

Original:
http://midnightblue.smugmug.com/photos/244934187-XL.jpg


1 of 4 retouches (my choice, but look at the others closely too):
http://midnightblue.smugmug.com/photos/244933886-XL.jpg

Your private gallery is:
http://midnightblue.smugmug.com/gallery/4191564/1/244934187

Thx for allowing me some practice time. ;)