haven't posted something for a while C&C please.

Yeah, it is difficult to get rid of noise on skin tones without making it look plasticky. I think you could leave the noise in the first two images as it doesn't really detract from the overall image and works well in an urban style and it gives it some depth.

As an aside I tried some noise reduction on the first, which got rid of the noise, but I actually think the version with noise works better. I just did it on the background, not the subject:

qtaran111 wrote in post #5600617
Yeah, it is difficult to get rid of noise on skin tones without making it look plasticky. I think you could leave the noise in the first two images as it doesn't really detract from the overall image and works well in an urban style and it gives it some depth.

As an aside I tried some noise reduction on the first, which got rid of the noise, but I actually think the version with noise works better. I just did it on the background, not the subject:

now i have to ask, how were you able to apply it selectively? did you mask off the subject? or "paint" it on

jamaican_sole wrote in post #5600636
now i have to ask, how were you able to apply it selectively? did you mask off the subject? or "paint" it on

I just made a quick selection of the guy, inverted it, then applied the noise reduction. Alternatively you could paint it on using a mask.