Excessive Noise at ISO 400

Are you using the beta of LR4? I have noticed weird artifacts using it that I have never seen before (on LR3). Have come to a final conclusion so most likely just me but wanted to throw it out there.

Well, hopefully "Dingbat" will get the Raw file uploaded so that we can compare -- it's possible that it was just one of those shots that turned out relatively noisy -- it does happen on occasion in my experience.

Dingbat Shutterbug wrote in post #13719611
I first noticed it when cropping some of the photos, not simply pixel peeping. When it becomes that evident as displayed on the screen, and my intent is for screen display, it becomes an issue even if it would look fine in 4x6. And if it's so far from the ordinary, I'd like to get a handle on why it's happening.

Can you elaborate on "go to your blue channel and that would be a tell tale sign" for a newb?

I've been blessed with a very expressive and photogenic child. "Wrapped around her finger" doesn't begin to describe the situation. Sledding was a total blast this weekend.

Thanks for the help.

The blue channel in your channels area of the layers box in photoshop. Its at the top. you can go to kellys webpage and order Dave cross adobe cs3 channels tutorial. Its outdated now because of the updates but it still applies and i think you can get a copy for like $10.00.

The blue channel shows noise and stuff like you have shown. once you isolate the channel where its at (red,green,blue) you can put a Gaussian blur on the channel and set it to something like 30-40% and it blurs it out and disappears. When you go back to RGB (color) the stuff you see should be gone. I have not done it in a while but when it happens, i can pull out my video and correct it. It might be on you tube with Dave cross videos.

Alright, here's the RAW.
https://rcpt.yousendit​.com …dc099fb411b1c4f​7db422ccad

I'm off to find my DPP disc. We did a system recovery on our computer a few months ago, and I never re-installed DPP.

Here's a quick swing at it through Lightroom:
https://www.yousendit.​com …ad/T2dkMFhzNDJC​TW5yZHNUQw
Not really any noise there to speak of, AFAIC.

Enable Lens Profile
Point Curve -> Strong Contrast
Dark Tones: -15
Shadow Tones: +15
Clarity: +5
Luminance Smoothing (aka NR): +25
Sharpening Radius: +0.3
Sharpening: +35
Edge Masking: +50

Does Dingbat need to allow image editing?

Looking at the original RAW, it is not that sharp at the 100% view level.

Compose a little tighter next time to capture more detail.

Not currently. That's why I linked the file But that's a good point. OP: If you want to have others post their edits directly, go into the control panel and turn on the Image Editing Allowed flag for your account.

I personally find that filling the frame with your subject vastly improves the image quality. Cropping shows all the uglies. But viewing the girls face at 100% is about what I would expect.

I'm pretty sure it is OK at this point. The OP is asking for help. We are technically not editing the image.

Image editing corrected. Thanks for pointing that out.

AbPho wrote in post #13721696
I personally find that filling the frame with your subject vastly improves the image quality. Cropping shows all the uglies. But viewing the girls face at 100% is about what I would expect.

Yes, better framing--->less cropping--->better IQ. Your last statement answers my primary question: is there more "noise", "grain", whatever, than you'd normally expect. Thanks for your input. Mixed responses, so far.

Dingbat Shutterbug wrote in post #13721749
Your last statement answers my primary question: is there more "noise", "grain", whatever, than you'd normally expect. Thanks for your input.

You are welcome.

That will happen.

I agree about the focus. The image is not very sharp. As you can see the mitt and the arm in front hold more detail. You are getting that from aggressive sharpening.

When I opened this in ACR the usual sharpening of 25 was there and colour noise was 25 and detail 50 which I left. Then back at sharpening I used the masking feature. You press control (Alt PC) and slide it to the right. As you can see when you use this there is a lot if white at first. As you slide it further a lot go white disappears an only edges remain. This is edge sharpening. Only the white areas are sharpened. LR should have this feature.

I then after opening the RAW file I ran it through the following sharpening method which again is edge sharpening only.

http://www.earthboundl​ight.com …search=edge+mas​k&bool=and

Results

Here is RAW in ACR - sharpening 90 and no masking.

Without the mask the noise is very visible at this crop. Thanks for the link to the Really Smart Sharpening article.

Cute kid.

Maybe I'm not as discriminating as I use to be because these look fine to me.
Default Color NR in ACR along with some luminance NR

Then I ran it through a standard action I have for sharpening.

I agree that tighter framing would have yielded a sharper image to work with, but I just don't think there really is an issue.

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