With or without noise?

[powerslave]

Hey guys, something I shot with the XTi + Nifty Fifty. I wanted to know what you guys think about the crop, grain and the whole image in general.

Edited in GIMP.

Click for flickr page.
With noise.


Without Noise

[Robert_Lay]

There is absolutely no point in us judging your choice of depth of field, because that is a matter of choice (up to the point where the lens is wide open). The question of what DOF is correct or even appropriate is entirely a matter of your personal taste or objective.

You haven't explained what you mean about the noise. We have no way of knowing whether the noise level in the upper picture was artificially injected as part of post processing or is due to some other cause, such as using a high ISO setting. In other words, we do not know what is the issue with respect to noise - so, what is your point?

Regarding the exposure, I suggest that the dynamic range in the scene is well beyond what you are able to show here, because the highlights on the lower picture are blown out and the shadows are blocked up and have too little detail. The same problem seems to be the case for the upper picture as well but not as extreme. Take a look at the histogram - the highlights are clipped at that end and the shadows are clipped at the other end. It's as if no effort has been made to get the dynamic range within bounds (such as through more diffuse lighting or by filling in the shadows with an auxilliary light source).

[powerslave]

Yes, I just wanted to know what was the opinion on the grainy image as opposed to the original. I personally like the grain, which was artificially interjected. I wanted to know if it looks overdone/artificial or something to that effect.

Thank you for the critique on lighting.

[Robert_Lay]

Thank you for the additional insight into the noise issue.
Your injected noise looks very similar to film grain. In fact it reminds me of a lot of my Tri-X negatives (ASA 400). If anything, your injected noise looks a little worse than what I was getting with the Tri X.

At the time I was using such film, the grain was considered a real pain in the butt - so, it's difficult to see anything beneficial in it to this day.

Nonetheless, your image with the injected noise looks realistically like film grain. However, a level of about half that would have been more like the grain we actually realized in those days.

[Radtech1]

Take a look at THIS LINK. It will show you the best way I have ever seen to get real film grain into a photo. Stellar stuff.

But as to your shot, I like it, I just can figure out what the hell it's a shot of?

Rad

[powerslave]

Robert: Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind.

Radtech1: It's a Philips F7213 LP player.