Noisy or Leave it alone?

I am a Post Processing beginner looking for advice.

I have never done any noise reduction on my photos. I have been looking at some of my shot from the past year and I cant help but notice the background is not perfect like so many photos in the bird forum that I look up to and strive to be like. I don't know if I am over analyzing my shots now, or if I should look into noise reduction. I am also comparing my shots taken with a 7d and 400mm 5.6 to those taken with a 500mm f4L. Should I just shut up and be happy with what I am getting?

In the very near future (some time this month) I have plans to get a new laptop as well as Lightroom 3 and CS5. Are my photos going to benefit from the noise reduction Photoshop and Lightroom offer.

Shots below have very little PP done. Overall I do very little PP, a little level adjustment and small sharpening if needed and thats about it. Advice needed. All shots below shot is JPEG because I currently cannot process RAW until I get new laptop.

100% size can be viewed here -
http://scottwilliamsga​llery.smugmug.com …TR7#1188098608_​4VCqW-O-LB

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Can't tell from these little web posts. But zoom your images to 100% and look at smooth areas for noise.

ChasP505 wrote in post #11851419
Can't tell from these little web posts. But zoom your images to 100% and look at smooth areas for noise.

Full version of green heron found here - http://scottwilliamsga​llery.smugmug.com …TR7#1188098608_​4VCqW-O-LB

The second one looks like it could use a of NR for a bit of improvement; but these are all quite well done.

Update: Full size posted while I was writing the original. You COULD do NR on that Heron, but I don't think that what is there would be anything you'd see in print unless you printed...something to wallpaper your room with

Snydremark wrote in post #11851437
The second one looks like it could use a of NR for a bit of improvement; but these are all quite well done.

Update: Full size posted while I was writing the original. You COULD do NR on that Heron, but I don't think that what is there would be anything you'd see in print unless you printed...something to wallpaper your room with

Thanks for the advice. I don't want to get caught up over analyzing my shots!

If those are indicative of what you normally get, then definitely don't spend too much time nitpicking, IMO. And given what you're describing as your workflow on images, you can most likely get away with LR3 on its own, unless there's some specific feature that you're wanting out of CS5.

Snydremark wrote in post #11851497
If those are indicative of what you normally get, then definitely don't spend too much time nitpicking, IMO. And given what you're describing as your workflow on images, you can most likely get away with LR3 on its own, unless there's some specific feature that you're wanting out of CS5.

I have never used lightroom before. Do you think Lightroom can clean up the image of the green heron or am I going to need a plug in?

I'm not a bird photographer, but I find the noise reduction in LR to be much simpler and more intuitive than CS5. You can more easily sync the settings as well. If all the really need is curves/levels, sharpening, and maybe a little noise reduction it sounds like LR could do it all.

PMCphotography wrote in post #11852192
I'm not a bird photographer, but I find the noise reduction in LR to be much simpler and more intuitive than CS5. You can more easily sync the settings as well. If all the really need is curves/levels, sharpening, and maybe a little noise reduction it sounds like LR could do it all.

Thanks for the input.

If you are a photographer, LR is perfect. I had it (but knew photoshop beforehand) and I do miss the interface. I do everything the same in photoshop that I would in light room.

The difference is that the workflow is much more fluid in LR and everything I do with image sets involves Photoshop and Bridge if I don't have LR installed. I love it, but don't need it since I do photography less and less lately and more graphics.

Many beautiful shoots, which can make them even better with some touch for sure.

Lightroom can EASILY clean up that heron shot...I've cleaned up a *lot* worse with it. It's really quite powerful and the only things I've found that I might want to do once in a while, that it couldn't, is clone out a branch or something.

Not a great shot to begin with, but you should be able to see the difference. Only done in LR3; lens profile applied, NR and sharpening.

Before:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/snydremark/5450​243768/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/snydremark/5450​243710/

Thanks for the example. Those are the small changes I am looking for. I plan to get both because I will use photoshop for other things besides photography. It is nice to know that lightroom will do almost everything I need. Do you mind explaining what you did in lightroom or point me in the right direction.

(Edit) The more I look at the two images on my screen it appears to change depending on where the image is on my monitor. Weird, it appears sharper at the bottom of my screen but when I put both images in the center they look almost the same

That's some weird behavior...I'm not sure what to say about that part


I cropped the original image WAY in, to get the base "before" image then:

- Enabled lens profile correction (adjusts the image for known anomalies in a given lens)
- Increased luminance noise reduction
- Increased color noise reduction (this is one of the most important, to me)
- Increased Sharpness

No other edits for this particular example

I think the differences stand out a bit more if you view each in their lightbox; but the adjustments were pretty minimal as there isn't much to work with, detail-wise, in that particular image to start with

Before - http://www.flickr.com …mark/5450243768​/lightbox/

After - http://www.flickr.com …mark/5450243710​/lightbox/

They look fine to me, I wouldn't bother with noise reduction. (although it seems I don't mind noise as much as some photographers)