Noise Reduction Primer and Questions

[Arthur Morris]

You can see the thread from which this thread was adapted here:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=23809

This Surfbird was photographed in La Jolla with the Canon EOS-50Dand the 500mm f/4L IS lens on the Mongoose M3.5 and the Gitzo CF 3530 LS tripod. This species is one of the warier shorebirds on the cliffs so getting close required lots of slow movement...

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

Oops. Forgot the EXP: ISO 400: 1/2000 sec. at f/4 set manually after histogram check. With the BKGR changing from dark blue to pure white when a wave broke to anywhere in between it was mandatory to be in manual mode.

Absolutely stunning Maestro and waiting for my 50-D to do the same, wonderful image and superb quality. Artie please tell me a good starting point for the P/S noise reduction. Bill

Thank you sir. In cases where I can easily select the BKGR, I usually use the Magic Wand followed by Refine Edge at the defaults and then put that on its own layer. Alternatively, I will paint a Quick Mask when faced with a complex BKGR. (I will soon be sharing info on an absolutely amazing selection plug-in that can accurately select feathers and fuzz...)

Once I have the selected area on its own layer (Control J), I start with Axel's oft-recommended settings for Filter/Noise/Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5-10 depending on the noise
Preserve details: 45%
Reduce Color Noise: 45%
Sharpen Details: 0%
Remove JPEG Artifact

At times I use higher settings for Perserve Details and Reduce Color Noise and have even experimented with higher settings for Sharpen Details. When you do experiment I would recommend working at 600 or 700% maginifaction.

The final piece to my NR puzzle is to run a 1-2 pixel Gaussian Blur on the layer, again working at 600 - 700%

I am going to copy this to Educational Resources and ask some questions. And I will see if I can add some NR images at 600%...