Noise Reduction in DPP

I am currently working my way through two years of shots, deleting the worst and converting the acceptable shots to jpeg. I am using the DPP software for almost all adjustment, but use photoshop for some tricky pictures. However, I have a question on the noise reduction (NR) application in DPP. I was told that it often paid off to do some NR before converting the RAW pictures to jpeg, since this would make the files smaller. There are two different parameters, luminance and chromatic (?, I am at work now, and cannot remember the exact names). The settings I was recommended were between 5 and 8 on luminance and 1 and 2 on chromatic. I take a look at the pictures at 100% if I am in doubt, especially if I have used high ISO.


I would like to know what experiences other have on noise reduction, and am happy for any recommendations.


By the way, I never delete RAW-files after I have converted them to jpeg. This is probably just nonsense from my twisted brain, but I consider the RAW-files as untouchables, in case I find out that my first post-processing was bad.

I usually only apply any noise reduction if I actually notice it being problematic.


if the noise looks colorful, I experiment with adjusting the chromatic filter. If it looks high contrast, but not particularly colorful, I do luminence...


However, the noise reduction counters fine detail, in which you may have to balance out sharpness and noise reduction and end results, so I don't generally have a general range of noise reduction....

Noise reduction is a matter of taste. I hardly do any noise reduction. If I do I reduce chroma noise.


Different cameras deliver different amounts of noise. With my 400D I shoot at ISO 1600 without noise reduction most of the time. In some cases I have to reduce chroma noise if the image was shot in dark surroundings and then I choose values between 3-6. Seldom more.


With the 50D I see much more chroma noise and at ISO 3200 and 6400 I sometimes have to set the chroma slider to the max. ( 20 ) Again, I do not touch the luminance slider. It smooths the image, and it looses details.


These are my personal preferences. Others may do things different.





- Johnny

Use the crominance to remove the color noise and the luminance to remove the white speckled noise. Use a lot more crominancethan the luminance because luminance removes a lot of detail, while the other does not.


John.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fast Glass

Use the crominance to remove the color noise and the luminance to remove the white speckled noise. Use a lot more crominancethan the luminance because luminance removes a lot of detail, while the other does not.


John.
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Thanks, just the info I needed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lars

This is probably just nonsense from my twisted brain, but I consider the RAW-files as untouchables,

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Your not alone in this feeling, I also do not delete the RAW. I sometimes find better software or mabye want to down rez from the RAW copy, or just don't like how I proccessed it and want to edit it again. The main reason is if I print I want to use the 16 bit TIFF for maximum IQ and detail.


John.

what is dpp?

DPP is the editing program that comes with Canon DSLR.

What Wes said, aka, "Digital Photo Professional". Once you've installed whatever came with your camera, you can download updated versions from Canon. The latest has several improvements over what came with my T1i, such as a fast noise reduction preview window, and rotation controls in the crop tool.