If you figured out a way to "overwrite" noise, would the image still look "normal?"

On 2017-01-29 19:59:27 +0000, RichA said:

I used to try all kinds of home-brew tricks to eliminate noise in the "bad
old days" when 4/3rds sensors suffered a lot from it. I'm wondering, apart
from colour blotches which don't show up now until very high ISO's, if you
figured out a way to average out discretely coloured "noisy" pixels, would
the image still look normal, or would it take on the appearance of a heavi
ly noise-washed image? Seems to me that noise reduction is crude, with the
effect being in severe cases whole swaths of images simply wiped, like sme
aring paint with a brush. If de-discolouration could be done at the pixel-l
evel, NR might work better. I just don't know if it's possible.

Applying strong total NR to an entire image is a two edged sword which
can lead to such a severe loss of detail that the image can be as badly
ruined as it can by the presence of too much noise.

One also needs to understand the differences between color and
luminance noise, this is dealt with quite well with LR/ACR. However,
the LR/ACR NR for both color and luminance is a blanket efford
effecting the entire image, and as such should be used judiciously. It
is also useful to understand how other parts of the PP workflow, such
as opening up shadows, adjusting saturation or contrast, or sharpening
can emphasize noise, and how to deal with that.

Today we have several very effective NR tools which should be used on
their own and not with a "more is better" philosophy. For example one
should not use the mostly effective noise reduction tools in Lightroom
or ACR and then add NIK Dfine NR as an additional blanket NR fix to the
workflow. That result is going to be a smear fest. However, software
such as Dfine, and several others including the NR filter in Photoshop
can be applied selectively to areas of the image where NR is needed by
selective application using either brush or layer mask.

Most importantly new sensors are producing cleaner high ISO/low light,
or shadow detail RAW image files.
--
Regards,

Savageduck

In article 2017012913200233549-savageduck1@REMOVESPAMmecom,
Savageduck wrote:

On 2017-01-29 19:59:27 +0000, RichA said:

I used to try all kinds of home-brew tricks to eliminate noise in the "bad
old days" when 4/3rds sensors suffered a lot from it. I'm wondering, apart
from colour blotches which don't show up now until very high ISO's, if you
figured out a way to average out discretely coloured "noisy" pixels, would
the image still look normal, or would it take on the appearance of a heavi
ly noise-washed image? Seems to me that noise reduction is crude, with the
effect being in severe cases whole swaths of images simply wiped, like sme
aring paint with a brush. If de-discolouration could be done at the pixel-l
evel, NR might work better. I just don't know if it's possible.

Applying strong total NR to an entire image is a two edged sword which
can lead to such a severe loss of detail that the image can be as badly
ruined as it can by the presence of too much noise.

One also needs to understand the differences between color and
luminance noise, this is dealt with quite well with LR/ACR. However,
the LR/ACR NR for both color and luminance is a blanket efford
effecting the entire image, and as such should be used judiciously. It
is also useful to understand how other parts of the PP workflow, such
as opening up shadows, adjusting saturation or contrast, or sharpening
can emphasize noise, and how to deal with that.

Today we have several very effective NR tools which should be used on
their own and not with a "more is better" philosophy. For example one
should not use the mostly effective noise reduction tools in Lightroom
or ACR and then add NIK Dfine NR as an additional blanket NR fix to the
workflow. That result is going to be a smear fest. However, software
such as Dfine, and several others including the NR filter in Photoshop
can be applied selectively to areas of the image where NR is needed by
selective application using either brush or layer mask.

Most importantly new sensors are producing cleaner high ISO/low light,
or shadow detail RAW image files.

I used to use NeatImage for my Olympus ORFs onceuponatime. Very
effective but you get the best result if you do your own profiling and
for that you need a camera of the model you used to make the capture.

I think that there are some profiles ready to go at neatimage.com as
well as a perpetual demo.
--
teleportation kills