upgrade from 550d

hi everyone

firstly may i start by thanking you all for your responses & debate on the subject & secondly sorry for taking ages to reply

since putting up the original post ive been making efforts to not only expose to the right (where i have seen benefits) but also to improve my editing - ive noticed an improvement in both i have to say

that said, im still feeling let down by the IQ on a number of my images & im at the stage now where im either asking if it's technique, my gear or me simply being ultra "picky" when im viewing some of the shots in LR at 1:1. im not a pro, probably never will be in an age where the market is heavily saturated, however i aspire to be better in what i do & see a continued improvement

ive gone through some of my images & ive picked two out, the first is this - a shot of the red arrows at iso800. this was shot with a tamron 70-300 lens (the basic one which i have since upgraded to another tamron 70-300 but with IS). ive exposed to the right, have not gone ott in LR but im left with what i personally deem to be too much noise (at 1:1)

http://www.jasonwells.​co.uk …aphy/Aviation/i​-dcJVmHH/A

this second one was shot at iso100 - i dont expect the moving part of the ride to be noise-free, but look closely at the horizontal blue bar on top of the kiosk & to me, there's noise which shouldn't be there. low iso, low level of editing & ive exposed to the right - was shot with the sigma 17-70mm

http://www.flickr.com …446989830/in/ph​otostream/

ive recently upgraded my monitor at home to a sizeable 24" from a stupid 15 or 17" and of course the colour, IQ & brightness has dramatically improved - perhaps this is now highlighting the noise more than before when im going in 1:1?

im half hoping a number of you will point the finger at me by being too picky, but id be interested to know where it's my technique & something i can change?

I think those are both stunning images and you're being too picky

Print one at 8x10 and see what you think.

waterrockets wrote in post #16373248
I think those are both stunning images and you're being too picky

Print one at 8x10 and see what you think.

cheers for that - must admit im struggling to pick fault at the view you see them there but at 1:1...

Images don't have to look perfect at 1:1.

jefzor wrote in post #16373622
Images don't have to look perfect at 1:1.

Word.
You're talking about noise you see at 1:1. When you are going through you photos, or when someone else is looking at them, they aren't zooming into 100%, they look at them normally. Like waterrockets said, print an 8x10 if you're that concerned. But you make is seem like you would pull out a magnifying glass and examine the 8x10 from 2 inches away LOL!

Pixel peeping is really bad for your wallet

True - guess we've all got our own views as to what's acceptable & perhaps 1:1 is OTT, however I still feel I've either got too much noise or want to reduce it further. Open to suggestions though

Brickr you're right & sum it up well. Are there improvements I can make in either what I do or what I use?

wellsie82 wrote in post #16373646
Brickr you're right & sum it up well. Are there improvements I can make in either what I do or what I use?

Buy a full frame camera, but even then you really shouldn't be viewing images at 100%, especially if you're not selling them.

Your second example image I'd be far more concerned about the motion blur than the noise you're perceiving (I can't see it). I'm not sure which image you were referring to with your first link though since there were multiple images on that page...

If your noise is not visible in the final result, (be it a print, a desktop background or a web image) then it's not an issue.

With some careful RAW processing you could get that little extra quality. Assuming LR4: In the detail panel, use the Masking slider until only the parts with detail are sharpened (about 30 or 40), that way you won't sharpen the noise in low contrast areas like the sky. Using noise reduction at ISO 800 seems a little too much to me, I generally use it above ISO 1600.

The blue bar in the fairground photograph is an out of focus area of the photo. The noise viewed at 1:1 will appear more significant than it actually is. I recommend only pixel peep in-focus areas of your photographs.